William Donald Kelley, DDS
"William Donald Kelley, DDS (1925-2005) was arguably the most famous practitioner of enzyme therapy in U.S. history. Coming after the time that the FDA banned the parenteral use of enzymes, Kelley advocated massive amounts of pancreatin taken orally. This became the centerpiece of a very unconventional cancer treatment protocol.
A full discussion of Kelley’s philosophy is beyond the scope of this article, however it is necessary to discuss somewhat the acrimonious debate that has surrounded his work and ideas.
Kelley’s great-great-grandfather, Lachlan Kelley, arrived in Philadelphia in 1850, following the Irish potato famine. His father, William Butler Kelley (1904-1954), was born in Oklahoma but worked in southern Kansas as a machinist for the Santa Fe railroad. Kelley’s mother, Velma Prince (1908-1998), born in Missouri, moved with her family to Arkansas City, Kansas, in 1914. Kelley’s parents married on Nov. 14, 1923, when Velma was 15. William Donald Kelley was born in Winfield on Nov. 2, 1925 on his parent’s 80-acre farm.
Kelley graduated from Arkansas City High School in 1943. He trained as a medical corpsman and during World War II served as an operating room technician both stateside and the Philippines. After his honorable discharge in 1945, he married a woman named Elizabeth or Betty (last name unknown), and studied biochemistry at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. Kelley had had some ‘mystical’ experiences as a child and intended to become a Christian medical missionary. But after graduating, in 1950, he found himself unable to gain admission to medical school. He later claimed that Betty’s family had sabotaged his application, since they disliked the idea of their daughter moving out of the country to do missionary work. He remained a frustrated physician all his life.
At his in-laws’ urging, Kelley attended Baylor University School of Dentistry in Dallas. During this period he also earned a Master’s degree in education and developed an abiding interest in nutrition. He graduated as a dentist in 1954 and, after completing his training in orthodontics at Washington University, the University of Alabama, and the University of West Virginia, practiced orthodontics in Grapevine, an affluent suburb of Fort Worth. In August 1956 he divorced Betty, however, and married Sue Ellen Simpson (b. 1937). They adopted four children. After Kelley’s father died of a heart attack in 1954, his mother supported herself by a variety of local jobs. She joined him in Texas and from 1960 to 1978 served as his office manager, dental assistant and general advisor."1
1. Cancer, Enzymes and Trophoblasts. Ralph W, Moss, PhD. Moss / Beard Report v.1.1, 2009, p. 59