On the occasion of his recognition as the 2011 Nathaniel E. Springer Memorial Lecturer at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Optometry earlier this month, The Ohio State University College of Optometry’s EF Wildermuth Professor of Optometry, Don Mutti, attended the dinner in his honor, hosted by UAB’s new Dean, Rod Nowakowski. The event was particularly poignant, as Donald A. Springer, a President of our Academy in 1963 and 1964, passed away earlier this year, and Nathaniel Springer was Dr. Springer’s optician father. Dr. Springer is widely recognized as the founder of the UAB School of Optometry. Other attendees at the dinner included Mrs. Rita Springer. Don asked Mrs. Springer how it occurred to Dr. Springer to place a new optometric institution in the southeast at a major academic institution where there was also a medical school. Unprompted and without knowing that Don had an abiding connection to the Academy, Mrs. Springer said that her husband had just been elected to the Academy’s Executive Council in 1954 and that he was deeply inspired by the Academy and its aspirations of excellence for the optometric profession. That inspiration led him to aim high by imagining a School of Optometry at UAB; the rest is history.
The other passage also reflects connections to the Academy in a giant’s accomplishments. Founding director of the National Eye Institute, Carl Kupfer, passed away early this month. Paul Sieving, current NEI director, said of him, “Creating an NIH institute from whole cloth is a daunting task, but Carl had a vision for the NEI and persevered to make it a reality. He was dedicated to clinical research and the development of clinician scientists. He believed in the primacy of investigator-initiated research. The NEI and the vision research community are a lasting legacy of Carl’s 30 years of service.” Dr. Kupfer was the Fry awardee in 1981 and received an Honorary Fellowship Academy designation in 1997. At the 1997 meeting in San Antonio, Dr. Kupfer spoke at the American Optometric Foundation’s 50th anniversary luncheon. His remarks were summarized in the AOF’s annual report by then-President Sarita Soni: “Dr. Kupfer acknowledged the fact that AOF has made major contributions to vision research through its Ezell fellowship program. He noted a number of Ezell fellows who have received NEI research awards over the years [now including 1997 Ezell fellows Brad Fortune and Kelly Nichols née Kinney] and thus contributed to our improved understanding of visual processes and disorders of the visual system. Dr. Kupfer went on to share his excitement and hope that optometry graduates, with support from NEI and AOF, may continue to work with basic scientists to seek answers to clinical questions that are important to the practitioner.” That’s Today’s Research, Tomorrow’s Practice®.
From When Great Trees Fall, by Maya Angelou:
“And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed. “
