INTRODUCTION The American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) held its 34th Annual Conference in May 2006 in San Francisco, California. Thirtyfour conferences is quite a few, and the physician assistant (PA) profession has come a long way since the first conference on New Health Practitioners was held in Wichita Falls, Texas, in April 1973. Over the years, the Academy has become a cohesive organization representing a diverse constituency of PAs. But this was not always the case. In 1973 there were several organizations claiming to represent physician assistants and vying for recognition by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the federal government. The Academy, known at that time as the American Academy of Physician’s Associates, and the National Association of Physicians’ Assistants (NAPA) were beginning to emerge as two well-represented PA organizations, but there were also two other organizations waiting in the wings: the American Association of Physicians’ Assistants (AAPA) and the Midwest Association of Physicians’ Assistants, which later changed its name to the American College of Physicians’ Assistants (ACPA).1 Each claimed to represent PAs to varying degrees and had differing requirements for membership based primarily on experience and education. Three of the four organizations were founded by graduates and students of formal PA educational programs. The Academy was founded by Duke University PA program graduates and students in Durham, North Carolina; the National Association by graduates of the US Public Health Service PA Program in Staten Island, New York; and the College by graduates of the Cincinnati Technical College Surgical Assistant Program in Cincinnati, Ohio. The American Association, which had offices in New York, was founded by Paul Palace to register mostly proprietarytrained PAs who had little or no formal education. However, the American Association was interested in adding formally educated PAs to its ranks and intensified recruiting efforts to do so.2 Each organization wanted a seat at the bargaining table to help write accreditation and certification standards and to promote the enactment of state enabling legislation. Each felt pressured to consolidate efforts and to expand its membership to include both generalist and specialist trained PAs. To become the recognized spokespersons for PAs, the leaders of these organizations knew that they had to eventually merge with another organization. In a letter to Academy members dated December 12, 1971, President Thomas Godkins noted that he had appointed Paul Moson to chair a special committee “to investigate making the Academy more inclusive, making necessary bylaw changes to do so, and exploring the feasibility of merging with the American College.”3 On January 24, 1972, John Braun, then president elect of the AAPA, met with representatives of the National This feature publishes articles on all aspects of PA history. Much of the material comes from the PA History Center, which is dedicated to the study of the history and legacy of the physician assistant profession. Additional information can be found on the Society for the Preservation of Physician Assistant History at http:// pahx.org. Authors desiring to contribute to PA History should forward submissions to: