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Marilyn Moffat, PT, PhD, FAPTA, CSCSDr Moffat has had a tremendous impact on the physical therapy profession as a visionary leader, a distinguished educator, and an accomplished clinician, administrator, and researcher. She has served as editor of Physical Therapy and, as an elected member of APTA's House of Delegates, has been instrumental in providing direction for the future of the profession. She has served as a member of innumerable committees, task forces, and boards of directors at every level within the Association. In 1991, she was elected President of APTA for the first of 2 consecutive terms.As President, Dr Moffat spearheaded the development of the Association's Guide to Physical Therapist Practice, and she later served as a project editor of the Guide's second edition and was heavily involved in the development of the Interactive Guide on CD-ROM. Dr Moffat has worked tirelessly since 1977, when she first spoke about the professional doctoral degree for physical therapists, to lead the profession through a process of redefining the role of the physical therapist for the future and ensuring that the highest level of practice would be achieved as a requisite for assuming the title “Doctor of Physical Therapy.”As a delegate to the World Confederation for Physical Therapy, Dr Moffat has provided leadership to the international community of physical therapists. She served as APTA's voting delegate to the WCPT General Meeting, on the Executive Committee of the WCPT as the North America/Caribbean Region representative, and as a member of the Task Force on the International Definition of Physical Therapy. Dr Moffat has given more than 800 professional presentations worldwide and has taught and consulted in Taiwan, Thailand, Burma, Puerto Rico, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Wuhan in China. For her demonstrated worldwide leadership in physical therapy, she was honored with WCPT's Mildred Elson Award for International Leadership in Physical Therapy.Dr Moffat has been the recipient of many APTA honors and awards. She has been recognized with APTA's Lucy Blair Service Award and as a Catherine Worthingham Fellow. She has received 2 diversity awards from the Advisory Panel on Minority Affairs, the R Charles Harker Policy Maker Award from APTA's Health Policy and Administration Section, and the Robert Dicus Outstanding Service Award from APTA's Private Practice Section. The most significant acknowledgments of her lifelong commitment to service are the New York Chapter's Dr Marilyn Moffat Distinguished Service Award and APTA's newly created Marilyn Moffat Leadership Award.

Service to this wonderful profession and to this Association has been possible because of the love and support of so many. Many individuals have given their unflagging support for so many years. My thanks to all of the past and current members of our Board of Directors, who have truly been the driving force behind our activities; to the members of our House of Delegates, who set our course of action; to all at the component level, who help to steer much of our action and without whose support little would be possible; and to our Headquarters staff, without whose tireless efforts our accomplishments would, quite simply, not be possible. Countless others within the profession have been an integral part of my life, and to them I shall always be indebted for their mentorship, their expertise, their loyalty, and their friendship.

1921–1996—three quarters of a century of healing the generations; of tending to the needs of those afflicted with disease, disability, loss of function, and pain; and of preventing physical problems confronting our citizenry. What a spectacular time this is for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) as we celebrate our diamond jubilee. The 75th anniversary is symbolized by the diamond—a pure, flawless stone of extreme hardness. The diamond connotes strength and durability; it represents on the one hand power and on the other hand beauty (Fig. 1). It has been indeed those qualities that have made this profession and this Association what they have been and what they will continue to be. Our history, our destiny, has been and will always be shaped by these qualities of resilience, skill, and magnificence.…

Good evening, colleagues from around the world, invited guests, family, and friends. It is indeed my pleasure to welcome you to this World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT) Congress. What a wonderful occasion it is for us to gather here for this 1995 Congress and for the United States to have the honor of serving as your host country. I, like so many of my American colleagues, have family roots in far-off shores, and we share much of the ancestral heritage that so many of you bring from your countries to this Congress. The WCPT—like all associations, confederations, or leagues before it—arose as a result of a vision and as a result of a need.…

Good evening, my colleagues. This meeting marks the 73rd year in the history of our Association, and it is my pleasure to be given the opportunity to present this extended Presidential Address tonight. As my first term of office has drawn to a close, it seems fitting to take time to look back over the past 3 years and highlight some of the accomplishments of our Association. Even I was astounded at what we have done or are in the process of doing. Certainly, many truly dedicated physical therapists and physical therapist assistants have put in untold hours in making many of these activities possible. In the area of education, we must look at both public education and awareness as well as physical therapy education. To enhance public education and awareness, we changed PT Week to PT Month.…

Mr Puller,* colleagues, distinguished guests—it is indeed my pleasure to open this meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association in Cincinnati, Ohio, marking the 72nd year in the history of the Association. This is a most historic year in the life of the profession of physical therapy because it does mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the first education program for the training of physical therapists in this country. Thus, the central theme about which this address will be based is: Will the legacy of our past provide us with a legacy for the future? To answer that question, we must look at the evolution of our profession, from what appeared to us as technical status, to somewhere in between, and now to the brink of professionalism.…