University of California and Organized Optometry
The Association of Opticians, later the name changed to the California Optometric Association (COA), started in 1899. In 1907, Schneider. Wood and Chin met with U.C. Pres. Benjamin Wheeler about establishing a course in the science of optometry. The course was inaugurated in 1923. The same year, the California legislature adopted the first statute for optometry. In 1923, there began an office, a refracting room, and a laboratory upstairs in Le Conte Hall, the Physics building. The connection was the correction of vision errors with eyeglass lenses was based on physics. The first Dean of Optometry was Ralph Minor, a physics professor. For 23 years, he expanded the curriculum and worked to separate optometry from the physics department.
COA President Tom Peters actively raised funds for an optometry building on the Berkeley campus. In 1941, total pledges by optometrists were $80,0000. In 1947, the CA legislature appropriated $300,000. That was not enough to build a new building, so U.C. voted to convert Durant Hall. Later, the name was changed to Minor Hall. The building was 2 stories, with eye examination rooms on the first floor, classrooms, and offices on the second floor. It was located across the street from Cowell Hospital, which was later torn down and replaced by the business school. It was near the football stadium. When I was at Cal, I had a job in the hospital parking lot. The doctors parked their cars, I watched the cars for safety, and sometimes studied.
I graduated from George Washington High School in February 1944. I started pre-optometry at Cal in September 1944. I was ineligible for the draft because of my nearsighted eyes, then the physical standards were lowered, and I got a deferment to finish my 2 years of courses.
The Japanese war ended 8/15/1945. I was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1946, got an honorable discharge, and returned to Cal. I started U C School of Optometry in 1948. It was the first 3-year class, ending in a master’s degree after a UC examination, followed by an examination for a California license and the title Doctor of Optometry.
Many of the students in my class were older than me, were World War II veterans, and many were married. They were experienced and mature. A high percentage of them were Jewish, because there were quotas to limit Jews from going to medical schools, including Stanford. My class had only one woman. The class two years ahead of mine was also mature and had many Jewish students.
One day, when I was in a lab with my teacher, Henry Peters, son of Thomas Peters, I was wearing new glasses from the school, and I told him they were hurting the back of my ears. He quickly adjusted the ends of the temples, and then they were comfortable. I learned the importance of proper frame selection and fitting, because the best Rx lenses will not be worn unless the frame is comfortable.
Fredrick Mason was the first faculty member, starting in 1924. When I was a student in the optometry school, he taught a beginning course in the first year, based on a book he wrote. He was a strict disciplinarian. Test answers were written, and he corrected any errors of spelling or grammar with a red pen, which lowered the points for a grade. When a student made a mistake in class, he said, “You should go back to selling shoes”. By coincidence, one classmate dropped out and went into his father’s shoe business chain. Angus McCloud was in the first graduating class in 1925. He practiced in Belmont. He was formal and polite, wore a suit, and looked much younger than his age.
Jack Hobson, an optometrist from Hayward, taught practical optometry. Dean Kenneth Stoddard taught the visual fields test. Gordon Walls, Phd in physiology, taught physiologic optics. He had the class make drawings of the anatomy of the retina, which had to be precise. He had each pair of students build a model of the nerve pathways from the eye to the brain, using colored threads. I kept that model for 80 years, will try to give it to a museum. Most teachers wore suits, but Gordon wore a short-sleeve sport shirt. One day, he surprised the class by wearing a dark suit and tie, and explained that after class, he was going to his psychiatrist.
Merideth Morgan, who later became Dean, taught theoretical optometry. The first semester, he gave me a grade of D. I complained and asked for a re-examination. He said in the final examination, I had a good answer, but not to the question he asked. He wanted to give me a lesson to be more careful, ie, on the examination by the state board for a license. In the second semester of the same course, I got a grade A.
I had to study hard, and commuted from home in SF, for easier studying than would have been living in my fraternity house in Berkeley. I had a car, and there was little traffic, but sometimes I had an eight o’clock class. I carpooled with three other students.
Tests were answered by writing in a blue book. One of my classmates always walked out of the classroom early during a test and got good grades. I stayed to the end and reviewed my answers.
We had formulas to add and divide multiple numbers, using a slide rule; there were no electronic adding machines. I could get a numerical answer, but had difficulty placing the decimal point, which made the answer right or wrong. My best friend in school, Bernie Press, helped me; he had used a slide rule when he taught a course in the U S Navy.
The first year lectures taught us how to do an eye examination. Then we were assigned an examination room in the clinic, where we had a patient, did a case history and eye examination, which was then reviewed by a licensed optometrist. Some were local optometrists who were in the clinic one day a week, or more. One well-known supervisor was Robert Harrigan, who may have been full-time. The clinic was important in teaching the examination by doing it.
In the Korean War, I needed one year of prior service to be exempt from the draft. I had six months, so I enlisted for three years in the U.S. Air Force (USAF) as an optometry officer. I asked to be stationed in California and was assigned to Mather Air Force Base, off Highway 50, near Sacramento. I had wanted to look for a practice location in CA while I was serving in the USAF.
When I opened my office in San Mateo in 1955, I quickly decided I would work in the San Mateo County Optometric Society (SMCOS) to improve the status and image of Optometry. The Society had about 20 members and had recently split off from the S.F. Society. This was a small group for what needed to be accomplished. Only some of the members were active, and as I saw them often through the years, we became close friends.
The San Mateo County Optometric Society started in 1953 when it split off from the San Francisco Society. The members were Drs. John McLachlan, Ron Dixon, Mel Bradfield, John Babcock, Robert Mandel, Angus McCloud, Robert Rosenberg, Ernie Scheffler, Leon Kaster, Al Glenn, Ralph Marshall, Harvey Odell, Irving Weissman, Bart Guarisco, William Van Bokkelen, Leon Kaster, David Allen, Newton Harrison, Robert Windler, W Gordon, and Albert Reisch. I joined in 1955 from San Mateo, and my good friend Herman Popiul joined from Redwood City.
The SMCOS cooperated with the Santa Clara County Society. A group of optometrists from my class and the class 2 years ahead opened their practice one per town, which were small towns starting to grow, previously mostly fruit orchards: Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga, Campbell, and Los Gatos.
SNCOS had a women’s auxiliary; they had some events, did some public relations, and the members became friends. Through the years, I was Chairman of these activities, one at a time: practice management, legislation, public information, and membership.
I was part of the decision to hire a part-time public relations counsel, Joseph Barber. His wife worked at the local newspaper, the San Mateo Times. He suggested P R programs, and he answered the society's telephone, including referrals to members. Individual advertising was discouraged, and Joe organized and placed an advertisement in the phone book, which listed each member, address, and phone, under the heading American Optometric Association (AOA).
Joe Barber advised and managed a Contact Lens Queen contest at the county fair, at a time when there was little awareness of contact lenses by the public. It was held in 1958 and 1959. Joe selected judges. My patient, Mrs. Dubner won 2nd place. For several years, the Society had a booth at the county fair, with members answering questions from the public.
I worked with Joe to publish a new monthly newsletter for members called Optopics. I worked with Philip Sloan twice to draft extensive changes to the constitution and bylaws, which had come from the COA, and we adapted them to our local needs.
I was Society president in 1969 and again in 1972. In my first term, we thoroughly explored the advantages and disadvantages of merging into the larger S.F. or Santa Clara Societies, and we voted to continue as a separate society by a close vote.
We decided we needed better cooperation with the other Bay Area Societies. I attended meetings with their representatives. Then an organizational meeting was held in 1962 at the Edgewater Hotel in Oakland. A constitution and bylaws were adopted, subject to a vote of approval by each participating society.
The first officers were President Harvey Arnold of ACCOS, Secretary Harry Levin of San Francisco. I was the Treasurer from San Mateo. The organization was named the Bay Area Optometric Coordinating Council (BAOCC), later changed to the Bay Area Optometric Council (BAOC).
I was treasurer in 1963, secretary in 1964, chairman of the public relations committee in 1965, and chairman in 1966. I continued to go to the meetings for many more years. The BAOCC hired a public relations counsel, educated him about optometry, then hired a different counsel, and so on. We learned things like if there is a one-time slander about optometry, sometimes it is best not to respond; “don’t beat a dead horse”. We emphasized positive programs, and also cooperated with the COA public information program and their legislative program. I continued to go to BAOCC meetings for many years. It hired a public relations counsel, educated him about optometry, then a different counsel, and met regularly with a public information committee.
CVS was started in 1955, did not experience rapid growth until 1965. It was a new concept of pre-paid vision care, started by a small group of optometrists in Oakland who were members of the ACCOS. It had phenomenal success. I joined and encouraged my colleagues to join. First membership was offered to all of the Bay Area, next to all of California, later to all the states, and later to Ophthalmology.
COA Trustee Bernard Garrett asked me to accompany him to represent COA at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the CA Laboratory Association in Monterey. I enjoyed the experience, which was my first activity for the COA.
Soon after that, in 1961, Irving Weissman, who practiced in Menlo Park, asked me to replace him on the COA membership committee. I was on that committee for 9 years. We interviewed Society presidents, one at a time, at the annual Presidents Council meeting, and we held membership drives. We studied and recommended new categories of membership and respective dues for educators, military, retired, and medical professionals. This latter category interested me because Philip Sloan, a member of SMCOS, was the first optometrist to work with an ophthalmologist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and one of the first in the Bay Area. We didn’t know at the time that this method of practice would experience a huge growth in the following years.
COA Director Paul Yarwood had visited the SMCOS and other societies. He had a booming, loud voice, a strong handshake, and always had a dramatic message. Suddenly, he died in 1965 at age 55. I attended his funeral in Sacramento, where the entire length of the two walls of the chapel had large, beautiful floral arrangements, donated by societies and other mourners. COA President Brad Barnes said in a eulogy, “Paul’s character and personality were in the highest sense a rich blend of devotion to duty, cheerfulness, a gift of human understanding, a concern for the individual and a genuine interest in the other fellow’s problems”. Paul had directed the COA for 20 years
In 1967, 1968, and 1969, I was the COA membership committee co-chairman with Robert Severtson of Los Angeles. I was responsible for the north and he for the south. There was a void at the COA office in Sacramento. The staff was very small. The new director, John Witzel, delegated to the COA committees. Bob and I worked on reorganizing letters, forms, and records. We wrote most of the correspondence to members as questions and problems arose. This was more responsibility than we had expected, and it was difficult when we were not in the COA office. This was before computers, when we used carbon paper for copies, and manually cut and pasted with scissors and glue.
There was another group of optometrists, called the National Association of Optometrists (NAO), which started in 1951. The COA had more members, but optometry was divided before the state legislature. The members of the NAO practiced in commercial settings and did more advertising than was allowed for membership in the COA.
In 1960, a Unification committee was formed to work for combining the NAO into the COA. It was chaired by Charles McDonald of the COA and Charles Brown of the NAO, who practiced in San Jose. The details of the plan were secret, but Charles did provide a summary and asked for advice from the COA membership committee, while I was a committee member. The main issue was the way a member practiced as a requirement for membership. The solution was to design a point system, in which the number of points required for membership started with a base and increased until 1974. More points were gained for less advertising, according to a scale. The categories for points were advertising, telephone book, window display, location, identification (sign), education, physical facilities, and functional facilities (equipment). Unification was adopted in 1964. Some of the former members of the NAO became leaders in the COA. Unification proved to be a success.
I chaired a regional meeting for members of several societies in the SF Bay Area to explain the details of the Unification, which had been adopted at a COA Convention. The COA wanted to gain as many of the NAO members as possible, and at the same time lose as few COA members as possible. The meeting was informative, and attendees were respectful of others’ opinions.
After Unification, there continued to be discussions about the rules of practice for membership. I remember at a COA convention, Dr Heinsen of San Jose, wearing a red sport coat, said, “If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, looks like a duck – it’s a duck”.
In 1958, I joined the Downtown San Mateo Lions Club. It met weekly at the Benjamin Franklin Hotel. I was chairman of the sight conservation committee for 3 years, and a member of Lions for most of my career. Some of the programs we supported were guide dogs for the blind, large print books in the library, and magnification devices. I participated in many activities, including fundraising, including selling Christmas trees in a lot, which I had to learn.
When I began private practice in 1955, optometry was at a serious disadvantage to ophthalmology, because optometrists had no way to measure intraocular pressure for glaucoma detection without an anesthetic. They relied on visual fields performed by a tangent screen. In 1959, Dr. Elwin Marg at UC Berkeley invented and introduced the Mackay-Marg tonometer, which was a significant advancement for optometry. These instruments were used by optometrists for glaucoma diagnosis without anesthetic eyedrops.
My education at the UC School of Optometry had the main emphasis on refraction, both theory and practice. There were many textbooks, but the bible was “Clinical Refraction” by Irwin Borish. We studied optics, ray tracing through lenses, aberrations, aniseikonia, low vision, and visual training. There was also education in the detection of eye diseases, visual field testing, anatomy, and physiology.
Retinoscopy was performed before the refraction. Use of the Jackson cross cylinder involved checking and re-checking, very thorough and time-consuming. Similarly, the determination of sphere and binocular balance was done very carefully. The examination included phorias and vergences at distance and near, near point tests of relative accommodation and convergence, and range of accommodation. Prescribing lenses was believed to be an “art”. Case analysis was by Merideth Morgan’s “tables of expecteds”, or graphical analysis.
When I started to practice optometry, it was completely drugless. Later, by legislation, it gained the use of diagnostic drugs. This was opposed by ophthalmology, which said that it would lead to other advances, and it did. In 1996, optometry gained the use of therapeutic drugs, and next minor surgical procedures, ie, eyelids, and the use of lasers. This progression continues in 2025. That is one reason I retired in January 1996, when I didn’t want to take the necessary education at age 69.
The medicare program began when Lyndon Johnson was president in 1965. Optometry was a drugless profession. Dentistry opted out. Ophthalmology wanted Optometry out. The program paid for a medical eye examination and excluded a charge for refraction. Later, after optometry gained the use of the first diagnostic drugs and then therapeutic drugs, it lobbied for inclusion in Medicare. In 1987, during budget reconciliation meetings, they voted to include optometry. Medicare said “optometrists are physicians, eligible for reimbursement for the services they could legally provide”. President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law.
Through my activities for the COA, I met many prominent optometrists. I already mentioned Charles McDonald and Charles Brown of San Jose. I met COA trustee Charles Seger when he visited SMCOS, and after the meeting, we went out to a pizza dinner in San Mateo. I knew Gerald Easton of San Diego as a friend of my close friend Bernard Press. I had spent time with COA trustee Dundas when he was preparing to talk to society presidents at a
COA presidents’ council. I met Irving Bennett several times; he was active in the AOA, had been on the board, and wrote a lot of optometry history. His brother Bernie lived across the street from us. Bernie and his wife were our friends. Bernie was a plumber, and he said he went to work to help pay for Irving going to college.
The COA had tried to block large corporations from entering CA to sell vision care. However, they did come, with a restriction that an optometrist in their office had to be independently licensed and not work for the corporation. LensCrafters started in 1983, and entered CA in late 1980s.
This was a good restriction obtained because the COA was strong. The opposite happened to pharmacy in CA because its Association was weak. Most Pharmacists left privately owned drugstores to work in pharmacy departments of chains like CVS and Walgreens. Furthermore, the insurance companies lowered the fees for filling an Rx, which harmed the privately owned drug stores.
When I started practice, all eyeglass lenses were made of glass. Plastic called CR-39 was introduced for use in eyeglass lenses in 1947. Plastic lenses were lighter-weight and less breakable than glass. When I started practice in 1955, all lenses fabricated in laboratories, ie, American Optical and Shane Michael, were made of glass. Soon they changed to make lenses of plastic. I remember I received the eyeglass lenses with fine hairline scratches, which I didn’t like, and discussed with the laboratories. In time, they had manufacturing techniques and scratch-resistant coatings. There was introduced new plastics for lenses, polycarbonate and high index for thinner lenses.
In the 1970’s Herbert Wertheim invented and got a patent for ultraviolet (UV) absorbing tints for plastic lenses, important because UV is harmful for cataracts and macular degeneration. 1971 Dr Wertheim formed Brain Power Inc. (BPI), which became the world’s largest manufacturer of ophthalmic instruments, tints for lenses, and diagnostic products.
Dr. Wertheim was the son of Jewish immigrants, born during the depression, who grew up with financial problems and dyslexia. He went into the US Navy at 17, trained to be an engineer and avionics. Then he went to work for NASA, where he had a lifelong interest in the part of the brain used for vision. He went to the Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, started his optometry practice in 1967. Then he discovered the chemicals for plastic lenses to block UV light.
Hebert and Nicole Wertheim have made many philanthropies. In 2021, they gifted the UC Optometry School 50 million dollars, the largest gift ever to an optometry school. The school was renamed the “Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science”.
When I started practice, people didn’t want to be seen wearing eyeglasses. The saying was Boys don’t make passes at girls who wear glasses”. Frames were made to be less visible. The military-issued eyeglasses were flesh color, thin plastic, and a basic P3 shape. American Optical made the numont rimless frame, lenses with a gold nosepiece and a thin gold rim at the top of the frame, and lenses held on by screws. Then, Tura Optical, owned by Monroe Levoy in NY, revolutionized frames. They said eyeglasses on the face should be a fashion accessory. A woman should not have one pair. She should have multiple pairs, each of a color to match or complement each item of clothing. One of their first frames was made of aluminum in bright colors. My wife had one which was gold. She had a B&L Wayfarer in bright red. Tura introduced the cat-eye upswept shape, jeweled filigree trim on frames. Tura had fashion shows with models wearing eyeglasses
Through the many years, optometric organizations had succeeded in establishing optometry as a respected profession. Then in 1977, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that attorneys could advertise, which also allowed advertising by physicians, dentists, and optometrists. That disappointed me, but at least optometry was equal to other professions.
I was fortunate to witness and participate in the beginning of many significant first events in the history of optometry. These include the first three year curriculum and masters of optometry degree at UC School of Optometry, the optometry building in Berkeley, women Optometrists, optometry in the newly created USAF, the COA Credit Union, SMCOS, The Bay Area Optometric Coordinating Council, Unification of the NAO into the COA, CVS which became VSP, the change from glass to plastic eyeglass lenses, the first corneal contact lenses, the addition of permeable hard and then soft contact lenes, the Mackay-Marg and air-puff tonometers, computers and photocopiers, automated equipment, use of assistants.
Probably the optometrists today in 2025 have little knowledge of this history of the slow and difficult evolution to a respected profession, resulting in a much increased financial reward. I am pleased to have done my part, and I knew many of the individual optometrists who accomplished these advances.