Forty Under 40: Darren K. Lee

Darren Lee was working as a welder in Alaska when he suffered an injury that he was told would need surgery to repair. He visited a chiropractor and changed his life.

“[The chiropractor] fixed me up,” Lee said. “I guess you could say it inspired me.”

The experience inspired Lee enough to enroll at Palmer Institute in Davenport, Iowa. He graduated in 1997 and started Lee Family Chiropractic in Siloam Springs.

Lee, 38, was born in Kansas but moved to Rogers and later to Siloam Springs.

“It’s a fun job,” Lee said. “You get a lot of people to come through the door who have been through the mill, been to the emergency room a dozen times, gone through the migraines and taken 10-12 drugs at a time. They visit us and recover.”

He enjoys bicycle racing and restoring old cars. His philosophy at work is to keep things as simple as possible. He admits to not being very fond of neckties.

“We don’t like to interfere with [patients] too much,” Lee said. “I’m kind of a throwback. Chiropractors have been around for 100-something years now and it was doing fine before all of the gadgets came around.”

Lee is also a veteran of the U.S. Navy Special Warfare.