When Monica Krick and her brother, Butch Parenti, look at the Christopher Columbus statue in City Park, they see the face and figure of their father's friend, Dr. Jesse Mercer Gehman.

The statue has generated protests in the racial justice period that followed the death of George Floyd in police custody in late May in Minneapolis. The protests expanded beyond the Floyd death.

Dr. Jesse Gehman, a native of Elverson, Chester County, grew up in Reading and was a pioneer in the field of natural health. Gehman was the model used in sculpting the Christopher Columbus statue in Reading's City Park.

Gehman, who grew up in Reading, was the model for the statue, sculpted in 1925 by Vincenzo Miserendino.

Whenever we went by the park, my dad would point out the statue and say Jesse posed for that, said Krick of Blandon.

She and Parenti of Reading credit Gehman, a pioneer in the fields of alternative medicine and naturopathy, for their father's longevity.

Their father, Nick, the well-known owner of the Keystone Meat Market at 857 Penn St., was91 when he died in 2008.

The elder Parenti, a lifelong disciple of Gehman, largely followed the naturopaths protocols for more than 70 years.

My dad listened to Jesse and was a good pupil, Krick said.

She remembers when her father developed a cyst that grew into his middle ear and bulged beneath his jaw.

Nicky, you have been a bad boy, she recalled Gehman said when consulted.

He blamed the growth on lapses in Nick's healthy diet and ordered a strict regimen of raw vegetables and fruits. After several weeks, the cyst drained and healed, she said.

Jesse had pretty much a cure for everything, Krick said. He advocated daily exercise and a vegetarian diet.

The naturopath favored eating a diet low in starchy and fatty foods, limiting consumption of meats, alcohol and caffeine and getting plenty of daily sunshine, fresh air and exercise. Outspokenly against smoking, he penned Smoke Across America, a treatise on the dangers of tobacco use, in 1943.

He also drew criticism from the established medical community due to what were seen as his unscientific methods and his anti-vaccination stance.

"Jesse could look at someone and diagnose their health problems," Krick said, noting the doctor could detect potential diseases and health conditions by examining a patient's eyes, skin and fingernails.

Dr. Jesse Gehman, a native of Elverson, Chester County, grew up in Reading and was a pioneer in the field of natural health. Gehman was the model used in sculpting the Christopher Columbus statue in Reading's City Park.

Gehman's interest in the health and strength-training movement, then known as physical culture, began during his teen years.

Typical exercise routines used by the movement often included the use of wooden clubs, dumbbells and medicine balls, equipment popular in the gymnasiums of Olivet Boys Club and Reading YMCA, where Gehman worked out.

After attending preparatory school in Massachusetts, he enrolled in the American College of Naturopathy and Chiropractic, graduating in 1925 with degrees in nutrition, naturopathy and chiropractic medicine.

The chiropractic school was established in New York in 1901, the same year Gehman was born.

He went on to complete a doctorate in natural philosophy in 1931.

Jesse Mercer Gehman poses as artist Vincenzo Miserendino puts the finishing touches on the wax sculpture to be used in casting the bronze figure of Christopher Columbus in Reading City Park.

While in his early 20s, Gehman settled outside New York, where he worked as a model, sometimes posing for Miserendino, according to an article in theReading Times, May 12, 1925. He also boxed and wrestled professionally under the name Jim Mercer.

His much younger brother, Marvin K. Gehman, later wrestled as Atomic Marvin Mercer. A World Junior Heavyweight wrestling champion, Marvin won 1,887 of his 2,327 professional matches with 368 others ending in a draw, according to the Reading Eagle, June 28, 1992.

The younger Gehman excelled in sports, particularly swimming during his years at Reading High School in the 1930s, and in the 1940s wrestled in matches at the Reading Armory.

About that time, he met the slightly younger Parenti, also a practitioner of physical culture and a wrestler. Marvin introduced Nick to Jesse, leading to a lifelong friendship, Krick said.

Krick, Parenti and their sister, Sandra Sikora, sometimes accompanied their father and stepmother their mother died in 1965 on visits to Gehman, his wife, Agnes, and their children. The Gehmans had moved to a farm inDuncannon, Perry County, where they founded a health spa and natural healing center,called the Natural Living Foundation.

Gehman served as president of the American Naturopathic Association and was in demand as a lecturer at the meetings of natural health organizations. He was honored in October 1975, by the International Vegetarian Union for his efforts in advancing vegetarianism.

Gehman died at age 75 the following year.

In addition to his second wife, Agnes Stone Gehman, he was survived by their two adult children and three children from his first marriage, according to his obituary in The News of Paterson, N.J.

Krick said she kept in touch with Gehman's family for many years and still follows many of the doctor's precepts, which she calls "Jesse-isms."

"He recognized the benefits of a healthy diet and exercise," Parenti said. He really was ahead of his time."

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The real face of Reading's Christopher Columbus statue was a pioneer of a different sort - Reading Eagle