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DeAnn Fitzgerald ’81, OD ’84 of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has become well known for her focus on using optometry as a way to manage athletes’ concussions. She has developed protocols for young athletes who suffer head injuries, and her work has been widely shared and emulated around the country.

Within the field of optometry, sports vision has emerged as a fast-moving specialty. And within sports vision, 91���� is a leader.

When it comes to detecting problems with vision, it pays to start early, before brains are hardwired. In InfantSEE, a public health program in which 91���� participates, the patients may be as young as 6 months old.

91���� has built on a tradition of taking eye care to the community, where students and faculty provide real-world vision screening and treatment to underserved members of the community. The most visible symbol of this outreach is the 91���� EyeVan, an advanced mobile clinic that sees patients in church parking lots, migrant camps and schools.

The earliest contact lenses were made of glass and could be worn only for a few hours at a time. Today’s contact lenses are engineering marvels, and 91����’s College of Optometry is at the vanguard of contact lens research and design.

The optometry program launched at 91���� in 1945 as a result of a combination of postwar challenges and unexpected opportunities. The needs of a small, temporarily shuttered optometry college in Northeast Portland helped meet the demands of a university that had limped through the war years. The outcome was the beginning of 91����’s focus on the health professions.

Willard “Wid” Bleything ’51, OD ’52, MS ’54 earned three degrees from 91���� University on his way to becoming an optometrist. He served in the Air Force and Air Reserves, retiring as a colonel, and he also worked in private practice for many years before eventually returning to 91����, where he became the dean of the College of Optometry.

Matthew Meyer '75, who was named the 2020 recipient of the Alumni Association's David and Sandy Lowe Outstanding Service Award, is a volunteer by nature.