TOPS Through The Years'
1948 ... It was the year Esther Manz and three of her friends decided that it was
time for them to lose weight. was here they met - around a kitchen table
at the Blue Briton Recreation Center - for the very first time.
The idea of meeting with other dieters for mutual encouragement
occurred to Mrs. Manz as she awaited the arrival of her fifth child.
While participating in group sessions designed to prepare women for childbirth,
she witnessed the power of mutual support in helping the women stay within
their doctors' guidelines for weight management. After the Milwaukee Journal
published an article about the new group, Esther Manz recalls,
“So many people showed up that we could hardly get through
the crowd to our meeting room!”
From the very beginning TOPS decided that anyone who succeeded in losing
a lot of weight deserved the royal treatment. Within a year, TOPS crowned
its first queen. By the end of TOPS' second year, Esther was
riding the bus to TOPS chapters all over town, carrying the TOPS scale
and records In a shopping bag. 'No wonder I lost weight!' she says.
To help keep all these now members informed, she started publishing a
modest mimeographed publication called TOPS News.
Soon TOPS was earning headlines everywhere. On April 9, 1951, Esther’s
story appeared in LIFE Magazine. By then TOPS had grown to about
2,500 members in Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Illinois
and South Dakota. Esther’s telephone rang constantly from 6 in the
morning till 11 at night. That disrupted the party line and TOPS had to get
its first business phone. TOPS ended the year with chapters in every state
and total membership of 8,000. In 1952 TOPS was incorporated. It was
the sixth anniversary in 1954, when the first national convention was
held in Chicago - which has since become known as IRD, 1955 marked
the year when TOPS’ first Canadian chapter was chartered In
Hamilton, Ontario, Esther Manz had long dreamed of a research program
to help find causes and remedies for the problems of overweight
In 1966 her dream came true with the establishment of
TOPS Club, Inc. Obesity and Metabolic Research Program.
Another longtime dream come true in 1975, when 59 Women gathered
for the first TOPS retreat. Esther saw retreat as a time for members to
receive motivation in their battle with overweight
In 1980, TOPS published its monograph on nutrition. That also was
the year TOPS' first 25-year KOPS were honored.
In 1991 Esther Manz retired and Betty Domenoe assumed the presidency of our
organization. As recently as 1994, the Medical College of
Wisconsin dedicated the TOPS Center for Obesity and Metabolic Research.
And that's how TOPS started - 50 years ago by four ladies around a
kitchen table- one of whom has since gained our love and admiration and is
known to all of us an our TOPS Mom - Esther S. Manz. The rest is
history - history that we would like to share with you today as we take a
look at TOPS "Through the Years' knowing that “The Dream Lives On”.
We hope that you have enjoyed seeing how our organization has changed
through the years and how Mrs. Manz' dream continues to live on
through our continued support of obesity research. the retreat program, and
the new and updated look for our organization.
(prevented at IRD 1997 Santa Clara, CA)
