A local chiropractor is our Bronx neighbor of the week after having recently won an award for service to his profession for over a quarter century.
Dr. Kenneth Gonoud, the owner of Community Chiropractic of Throggs Neck, was awarded a lifetime membership after 25 years of service at a recent convention of the New York Chiropractic Council.
Gonoud, 51, has been on the council’s board for 22 years, serving in a variety of capacities including president of the Bronx/Westchester district, and treasurer of its political action fund, where he said he works with a lobbyist on behalf of the profession.
He also serves as a member of the organization’s unity committee, with a goal of unifying chiropractic professionals around the state, while speaking about the service that led to the lifetime membership.
“It was nice to feel the gratitude of my colleagues,” said Gonoud about gaining the recognition. “I felt humbled and honored.”
It is the third award that the doctor has won from the council.
In 2008, Gonoud was awarded the organization’s Peter G. Mirto Award for what the council termed “his passionate and uncompromising perseverance in government affairs to secure access to chiropractic services.” He also won the organization’s Beacon Award in 2003.
The doctor said that he started his own chiropractic practice 23 years ago, with the goal of bringing his own vision to what he termed a drugless healing art.
“If you work at another practice, your latching onto someone else’s vision,” he said. “I have created the model of practice that I wanted, focused on wellness, educating people on how to stay healthy, and teaching my patients how important the nervous system is to their overall health.”
The nervous system, he explains, controls everything in the body, and chiropractic frees up the nervous system to improve overall health.
He said that he founded his own practice in Throggs Neck because he knew the community and was involved in it. Gonoud grew up on Quincy Avenue, he said, attending St. Frances de Chantal School, Monsignor Scanlan High School, and Lehman College.
The only time he left the borough to go to school, he said, was when he attended Palmer College of Chiropractic.
He said he discovered chiropractic in his high school years, after learning more about physical fitness and nutrition, adding that he was pleased to practice in the community where he grew up.
“There is one or two degrees of separation between me and many of my patients,” said the doctor, explaining that he sees many people in his office that he knew or grew up with, and their families. “That is attributable to Throggs Neck being a close-knit community and my having grown up here.”
Gonoud is also a member of the Throggs Neck Merchants Association.
He is the father of two daughters. Rose, 19, is a sophomore at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. His younger daughter, Grace, enjoys singing, theater, and playing the clarinet, he said. She also took the picture that he uses on his business cards, he added.
Community Chiropractic of Throggs Neck is located at 4191 E. Tremont Avenue.
