Dr. Larry Nosse
Larry J. Nosse, Ph.D.
Euclid Senior High School Class of 1957
Larry Nosse’s career and service history reflect what he learned on Euclid’s athletic fields. His guiding precepts are guidelines to bringing out the best in everyone: always giving a best effort, constantly working hard at tasks, honestly advancing oneself, and graciously helping and respecting others. He still holds as his early role models his former Shore and Euclid coaches, each of whom is in the Euclid Schools Sports Hall of Fame: Clarence Eckert, John Habat, Don Mohr, Neal Nelson, Chet Rojeck, and Ed Stoch. Precepts that he learned from these fine gentlemen have guided Larry to a distinguished career as a renowned physical therapist, a university professor, and a prolific author of professional articles and three textbooks, one of which is now in its third edition.
A Euclid Schools Sports Hall of Fame honoree himself for his high school exploits (All-Ohio honors in baseball and football), Larry is now the ninth Sports Hall member who also has been inducted into the Distinguished Achievement Hall of Fame for his notable achievements beyond the athletic fields of his youth. Although his playing days are behind him, he has still been able to combine his love of athletic competition with his desire to help those in need. What he has done with his life has been to create a rewarding career in physical therapy whereby his substantial talents in this field have enriched and healed the lives of countless people who have had the good fortune to come into contact with him.
Larry’s career as a health professional started before he knew it. In high school he had friends and teammates who had disabilities. Larry knew them simply as people, not people with disabilities. In college it was a natural progression for him to take courses in adaptive physical education and an internship in corrective therapy at the Cleveland Veterans Administration Center as part of his undergraduate preparation at Kent State University. During his senior year he really asserted himself as a student and made the Dean’s List that whole year. Following graduation from Kent State with a Bachelor of Science degree in Education in 1964, he spent a short time as a substitute teacher before volunteering to serve in the Peace Corps.
In the Peace Corps from 1964-67, he worked as the practicum director and faculty director and faculty member of a leadership and training school for the YMCA of Caracas, Venezuela. The school prepared YMCA center leaders to work at sites throughout that country. It was not long before the Peace Corps selected Larry to receive the Outstanding Volunteer award for his work with underprivileged youth.
Soon after returning to the United States, Larry enrolled at Stanford University, in Palo Alto, California, to study physical therapy with the support of a grant from the Elks Foundation and one from the federal government’s Allied Health Training group. In 1968 he earned a Post-Bachelor’s Certificate in Physical Therapy and was licensed to practice and work as a staff therapist at the Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center in Downey, California, and also to be a part-time worker in a private clinic, a nursing home, and at private homes as a home-visit therapist. Allied Health training grants funded Larry’s graduate studies in physical therapy during the 1969-70 time period at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, during which time he earned a Master of Arts degree in Physical Therapy and subsequently entered a post-graduate residency program at the Kaiser Foundation in Vallejo, California, while also working as a staff therapist at the hospital.
Things really got busy for Larry from 1970-72. He moved to Chicago to become the Physical Therapy Education Supervisor at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and to treat patients with neurological damage. In a short time he assumed more responsibility by serving as the Interim Director of the Physical Therapist Assistant Program. He also became involved with physical therapy leadership at the Central YMCA Community College of Chicago, accepted appointments as a Clinical Assistant in the Department of Medicine and Rehabilitation of Northwestern University, and was a consultant to Public Health Region V in the Chicago area. In the community he mentored minority students and was recognized for his efforts by the Chicago Association of Commerce and Industry in 1972.
Larry became a full-time teacher in 1972 at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where he taught Marquette University physical therapy students. In 1975 he joined the Department of Physical Therapy at Marquette University and began a 34-year academic career on the faculty at Marquette, developing and teaching 12 different courses at the undergraduate, master’s, and clinical doctorate levels.
To broaden his knowledge in 1977, Larry took a leave of absence for two years to join the United States Sports Academy in a research and training project for the Ministry of Youth and Sport in the Middle Eastern island nation of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf. There he was the physical therapist for the national and club sports teams. In 1979, when he returned to Marquette, he passed examinations to become a certified athletic trainer and resumed his assistant professor’s position.
Larry has received extramural and intramural funding for his varied research projects. His results have been published in 16 articles in nine different refereed journals and presented at over 40 professional meetings. He has been invited to deliver over 100 regional, national, and international presentations on topics ranging from the physiological effects of head-down positioning to the organization of values of physical therapists. He is the primary author of three textbooks on physical therapy management and has written articles for more than two dozen publications and newspapers.
In 1994, after completing much of the work noted above and earning tenured status as an associate professor, Larry returned to the classroom as a full-time graduate student while continuing to teach part-time. In 1988 he earned his Ph.D. in motor behavior.
For over 40 years Dr. Nosse has been an active member of the American Physical Therapy Association. In recognition of his outstanding professional contributions and services to the American Physical Therapy Association’s Section of Administration, he was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 2001. That same year he was also awarded the Section’s Outstanding Service Award for helping to conceptualize, initiate, host and teach in its leadership training programs. In 2004 the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association inducted him into its Hall of Fame.
Dr. Nosse retired from Marquette University in 2006. He currently is President of LJN Therapy, SC, a private company, and works with well and unwell elderly adults. His ongoing professional service activities include serving on two journals’ publication committees, mentoring rehabilitation therapists interested in practice, and student supervision. His community service endeavors include membership on Wisconsin’s physical therapy licensing board and serving as the Trustee of the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Fund.
He current resides in Wauwatosa, WI.
Inducted on April 26, 2007