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GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS | 2021– 2022 67 many questioned the siting of a significant scientific study in a sleepy Midwestern town, the answer for why the Fels study was located in Yellow Springs was simple, according to Roche. “Many are puzzled by the location of the Fels Longitudinal Study and the Fels Research Institute in Yellow Springs, unaffected by the flow of resources and expertise to large well-known universities such as Harvard and Stanford,” Roche wrote, noting that it was natural to locate the study at Antioch College due to the friendship between Fels and Morgan. The study began with a staff of three and a budget of $5,000, according to the Roche book. Between 12 and 20 participants, initially preg- nant women, were enrolled in the study each year, all of whom lived within a 30-mile radius of Yellow Springs, and the first measurements of the research babies were taken near the time of their births. The children were brought back each year to be weighed, measured, photographed and to give blood and body fat samples. X-rays of hands were taken, and machines measured the body’s levels of fat and muscle, among other measurements, according to Roche. “You had to do it the Fels way. It was very precise,” said villager Jean Payne, who worked as a Fels data collec- tion specialist for 23 years. While initially the Fels research took place at G. Stanley Hall Hall on the Antioch campus, it later moved to what is now called the Fels building on Livermore Street. When the study’s then-funder, the Fels Fund of Philadelphia, faced financial difficulties in the mid-1970s, the fund donated the study to Wright State University. Many prominent physical anthropologists and physi- cians worked with the Fels study over the years, accord- ing to Bellisari. Earle Reyn- olds in the 1940s “was the first to document body fat distribution changes in boys and girls and their relation- ship to adult obesity.” Then Harvard researcher Stanley Garn “brought the study into national and international prominence through work on skeletal and dental matura- tion and age changes in adi- pose tissue (fat),” she wrote. The Fels project combined scientific rigor with the human connection of extended con - tact with local children and families, Payne said. “There was an atmosphere of pride at work and a lot of warmth, watching these kids grow,” Payne said. At the study’s recent end, it still had about 1,000 active participants, according to Bellisari, along with 1,000 additional family members, spanning as many as four generations. The study was unique in its multi-genera- tional focus, Bellisari said. One of the long-term Fels families was the Dykstra/ Bothwell family. Susan Dyks- tra Bothwell remembers that her mother signed on before Sue was born, in the mid- ’40s. As a child participant in the study, Sue remembers well her annual visits to the Fels study, and especially that she got to choose a toy from the toy closet when the exam was complete. She continued taking part in the study during her adulthood when, after she moved to Oregon, Fels would pay for her to return to Yellow Springs for her annual appointment. Then, when she moved back to town, she enrolled her own children, including son Seth. Seth Bothwell continued taking part in Fels research as an adult and later, with his wife, Erica, enrolled their own children in the study. Recently the two recounted their pride in taking part in the study. “It was a big part of our lives. You always looked forward to it. We liked being involved,” he said. “The significance of the study is enormous to the scientific community,” wrote principal Fels investigator Miryoung Lee, formerly of Wright State and now associ- ate professor at UTHealth School of Public Health. The Fels data has been the foun- dation of more than 1,000 publications. It also formed the basis of infant growth charts that are used for chil- dren throughout the world. The Fels study data was also among the first to quantify health risks during childhood for adult diseases such as hypertension and obesity. “We believe it is the lon- gest running human health study in the world,” Lee wrote. ♦ Agraria is a project of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions Agraria is a center for research and education about regenerative land use that supports the expansion of our regional food system and serves as a platform for community resilience. 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