Position/Where: Chiropractor and founder of West End Chiropractic and Rehabilitation Center, St. Louis
Career Highlights: West End Chiropractic specializes in sports rehabilitation, acupuncture, with a massage therapist and a physical trainer on staff. He served as an assistant varsity coach at CBC High School and as a sports physician for CBC and Cardinal Ritter Prep, and conducts sports physicals for St. Louis Public Schools. Before becoming a chiropractor, Gerdine was self-employed as owner of Elite Detailing in St. Louis, a car detailing business he has owned for 19 years and he previously worked at Union Electric.
Awards: Last month, Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Gerdine to the State Board of Health. The board reviews and advises on rules and regulations promoted by the Dept. of Health and Senior Services. The board also provides comment to the department director about DHSS rules, regulations, budget formation, planning and operations.
Education: Earned a football scholarship and an undergraduate degree in business from Illinois Benedictine College in Lisle, Ill. Gerdine earned his doctor of chiropractic from Logan College of Chiropractic in St. Louis.
Personal: Gerdine’s wife, Charmaine Gerdine, is a certified colon hydrotherapist. They have a son, Michael Jr.
St. Louis Connection:
Gerdine is a St. Louis native who graduated from Christian Brothers College High School. He and his family attend Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in St. Louis.
Journey to success: “As a little boy, I always wanted to be a business man and a doctor – all at once,” Gerdine said. “A lot of my family owned businesses. On my mother’s side were a lot of entrepreneurs. On my father’s side were educators. At 19, I started a chauffeuring service … and it kind of went on from there.”
His thoughts turned from medical to chiropractic school during a chance encounter at his detailing shop.
“A good friend of mine who was in chiropractic school – I hadn’t seen him in many, many years – popped up in my detail business,” Gerdine said. The friend asked him to ride over to a clinic with him, but he declined. The friend came back a few days later. “Come on, ride out to the clinic with me, man,” he said. This time Gerdine agreed.
“The first place he takes me is to the gross anatomy lab,” Gerdine said. “I’m standing there sweating – sweating profusely, I didn’t want him to know I was that scared,” he laughed.
As he eased in and watched students working and dissecting, his friend asked if he understood what was going on. He was amazed at Gerdine’s observations.
“It’s pretty easy to figure out what you’re doing from what you laid out – it’s not too hard. And that was that – I said, ‘This is what I want to do.”
He researched what courses he needed to take – chemistry, physics, organic chemistry, anatomy and physiology. “I took some at Logan –they had an accelerated program and I took some at the community colleges and I got all those ‘prereqs’ out of the way in about a year,” Gerdine said. “I was full steam ahead from there. It took four years. Fortunately, my wife and my parents helped me with my business and my wife helped me. On the weekends, she was working, so it all fell in place.”