Editor’s note – This was brought to the editor’s attention this past week.
Lloyd Anthony Steffensmeier, the founder of Lloyd Table Company in Lisbon, passed away this April. A private burial was recently held at Saint James Church in Saint Paul, Iowa, June 14.
Steffensmeier was born in Saint James, to Bernard “Ben” and Rose Uthum Steffensmeier. Growing up, he worked on the family farm with his nine brothers and sisters. He graduated from St. James High School in Saint Paul Iowa in 1950. After graduating, he started work as a carpenter for his brother-in law. Steffensmeier was eventually drafted into the Army in 1952, where he served with the 555th Field Artillery Battalion in Korea. He was a member of a gun crew, and also did maintenance and repair to the guns. He was injured during an attack by North Korea in 1953. He received a Purple Heart and an honorable discharge after his five month recovery.
When he returned stateside, he decided to pursue a career as a chiropractor. He enrolled at Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport. While there, he designed, produced and sold portable adjusting tables. He graduated from Palmer in 1957 with a Doctorate in Chiropractic. He moved to the Mount Vernon area in 1960, where he set up a chiropractic practice. He also continued developing his chiropractic tables, and soon founded Lloyd Table Company.
In 1972, the Lloyd Table Company moved to a larger facility in Lisbon.
In an interview with D.C. Products Review in July 2008, they indicated one of his first designs was the 900HS, a table that allowed doctors to have automatic drops without an air compressor, a power front section and the ability to elevate lower or higher than anything produced. That table put Lloyd Table Company on the map.
In the interview, Steffensmeier spoke about the chiropractic career.
“If I learn a technique, understand it and believe that by usindg this technique my patient will get better, than most of the time they will,” Steffensmeier said. “I say to the young doctors out there that you should never stop learning and searching. No matter how good I do as a doctor, I know a small percentage off my patients will not respond to my adjustments. It is my job to learn more so that small percentage gets even smaller.”
In his career, he noted some of the biggest changes have been the amount of people who knew about chiropractic care. Back in the 1950s, doctors would be arrested for practicing chiropractic care for practicing without a license.
As for why he started the table company, Steffensmeier said when he had graduated there were only a few choices.
“I came to understand that positioning the patient correctly is the most important thing I can do for them and myself,” Steffensmeier said. Simply by putting thee patient in the proper position, I need less force to make the adjustment and less stress on my own body.”
The company continued expanding, designing more types of tables, and is a company that is still in Lisbon to this day.
As for what he wanted to be remembered, Steffensmeier said he would want to be remembered for what he has been doing in his career – making the best adjusting tables in the world and helping chiropractic care to be spread across the world.
Steffensmeier received the Parker Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of the chiropractic profession.
In 2015, he married Colette Lecler, and he retired to Texas in 2020. Steffensmeier passed away in April following a short illness. He is survived by Colette, two step-children Michelle Lecler and Stive Lecler, his brother Paul of Fort Madison his sister Annette Nares of Davenport, and several nieces and nephews.
Lloyd Table Company founder passes away
Nathan Countryman, Editor
July 11, 2024
About the Contributor
Nathan Countryman, Editor
Nathan Countryman is the Editor of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Sun.