Among the Spa Hall of Fame inductees is Deborah Szekely, co-founder of Rancho La Puerta and founder of The Golden Door

During this year’s annual Washington Spa Alliance Symposium, on 17 March at the National Press Club, pioneers of the modern US spa industry – including Deborah Szekely and Clodagh – have been honoured with a Spa Hall of Fame.

The inaugural ‘Class of 2015’ includes founders and distinguished contributors who have been recognised for lifetime achievement.

The Spa Hall of Fame, which will live as a virtual museum here, will feature photos and bios of inductees, as well as an archive of timelines and history as a way to publicly recognise a select group of leaders whose contributions have advanced the modern spa experience.

The list of the first inductees is as follows:

• Deborah Szekely, 1940, Rancho La Puerta (co-founder); 1958, The Golden Door (founder)

• Sheila Cluff, 1977, The Oaks at Ojai (owner and founder)

• Jerrold Cohen, 1979, Canyon Ranch (co-founder)

• Pat and Juanita Corbett, 1982, The Hills Health Ranch (co-founders)

• Professor Mary Huddleston Tabacchi, 1984, First University Course on Spa, Cornell University

• Clodagh, 1984, Clodagh Design (founder)

• Ruth Stricker, 1985, The Marsh, A Center for Balance and Fitness (founder)

• Bernard Burt, 1989, historian & author, Fodor’s Health & Fitness Vacations; 1991, ISPA (co-founder)

“This induction ceremony will represent the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together centred around spa – with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson took the waters alone in Warm Springs, Virginia in 1818,” said the museum’s curator, Mary-Elizabeth Gifford (referencing President Kennedy’s oft-quoted welcome to Nobel Prize winners who were hailed as unmatched in the White House since Jefferson dined there alone).

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FEATURE: People – Deborah Szekely