In the current Durham phone book, there are two listings for
Dr. Walter Kempner. Kempner died two years ago. Still, whether
by oversight or design, the lingering listings bear witness
that Kempner - in legacy, legend and name - remains an enduring
presence in Durham. By some accounts, Kempner had the stature
of an Old Testament god. By others, his name is what made
one for Duke Medical Center. By others, he was merely the
founding father of an industry that ripples millions and millions
through the Bull City economy. One described him described
as "like someone's Nazi uncle."
Notwithstanding Kempner was Jewish.
Autocratic, accented, theatrical, a recluse who nonetheless
made a Public statement with his convertible Lincoln and
trademark costume of blue blazer and white shoes, Kempner
was the man who gave Durham its title of Fat City - euphemized
by local boosters to "Diet Capital of the World."
Kempner, if you haven't caught on by now, invented the Rice
Diet, a weight-shedding regimen that drew celebrities from
the Supreme Court to Mayberry. WWII hero Gen. Mark Clark
brought his wife; another star of that generation, Frank
Sinatra, sent his mother. The Rice Diet put Durham on the
cover of Esquire, and into the Harper's Bazaar column "The
Idle Rich."
"Everyone who's ever been overweight," the Bazaar
told its 425,000 readers in June 1973, "seriously,
that is - when the scales no longer tip but literally topple
and has either wanted or been warned to lose, has made his
way desperately down to Durham."
Kempner passed away on Sept. 27, 1997, in the Virginia
Avenue home where he had lived since 1943. He was 94. He
came to Duke in 1934, officially retired from the faculty
in 1972 and from full time with the Rice Diet 20 years after
that.
Still - look up his name in the phone book. Call either
of the numbers listed for him, or that just above "Kempner
Walter Dr" for "Kempner Clinic," and you
get the "Rice Diet Program." And Kempner's institution
has, more and less directly, spun off other enterprises
you'll find in the book such as Structure House, the Duke
Diet and Fitness Center and the Duke Center for Living.
Put them all together, you get what Durham Convention &
Visitors Bureau President Reyn Bowman has called the planet's
"serious diet capital." Bowman said health care,
including diet programs, accounts for about 13 percent of
Durham's annual visitation. Compared with other cities,
that percentage is "twice what our fair share would
be." Those visitors bring about $40 million a year
to town, he said; and a 1986 study by the City of Medicine
program figured that dieters generated close to $100 million
a year, counting their effect on rents, shopping and salaries
paid diet-center personnel. Of course, none of it started
out that way.
A hospital and medical school had been a dream for Trinity
College since the time of its move to Durham from Randolph
County in 1892, but it wasn't until James B. Duke's indenture
of 1924 that impetus and money were available to turn the
dream real. Thus equipped, and with the fortuitous coincidence
of cash in hand with an international depression that made
faculty fodder available at fire-sale prices, Duke-ne"e-Trinity
figured its future was in the academic stars.
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