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Show Joel S. Glaser, MD (1938-2011) On February 10, 2011, Joel S. Glaser, MD, died at home in Miami after a long illness. The neuro-ophthalmology community had lost one of its most esteemed members. Dr. Glaser was born in Brooklyn, New York, where his father Benjamin practiced as an eye, ear, nose, and throat medical specialist. His grandparents were Jews who had emigrated half a century earlier from Ukraine and Latvia. During World War II, his father was stationed in an army camp in north Florida, and when the war ended, the family moved to Orlando. The young Glaser first became attracted to medicine as he watched and admired his father, who was largely self-taught in ophthalmology. In an interview for this journal in 2006, he recalled that in the early postwar period, his father was offended by the treatment of black patients, who could not be seated in the same waiting room as white patients. In most medical practices, black patients would wait outside in the hot sun. He defied conventional attitudes by building a comfortable, air-conditioned waiting room for them. After graduating from high school in 1955, Glaser attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. During that time, he majored in Biology and minored in English, deepening an interest in literature as he read Sartre, Baudelaire, and St. Exupery in the original French. He then attended Duke University Medical School. At first he wanted to pursue cardiology, but when that elective was full, he signed up for a rotation with ‘‘Red'' Smith (aka J. Lawton Smith, MD), a young ophthalmology faculty member who cruised the wards dazzling medical students and residents with his clinical legerdemain. Before starting with Smith, Glaser decided to explore a rotation at the medical school of the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). He was directed to the office of William F. Hoyt, MD, who, upon hearing that Glaser was about to take an elective with Smith, instantly invited him to spend time with him at the UCSF. Glaser often reflected that his career in neuro-ophthalmology was set in motion by an unavailable cardiology elective and the sporting rivalry of Smith and Hoyt. Before the elective with Smith was to begin, Smith had accepted a faculty position at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (BPEI), University of Miami, and Glaser followed him there. Exposure to the finesse of Smith and other prominent neuro-ophthalmologists in the BPEI faculty,Noble David, MD, and Edward Norton,MD, set him on the path of that subspecialty. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the BPEI and a neuro-ophthalmology fellowship withHoyt. The year with Hoyt shaped Glaser. In the 2006 interview, Glaser shared this story: This was where I learned that it is not what you know, but when you know it. We would make ward rounds on the inpatients . . . Hoyt would ask a question of the group. He would go around the circle, prodding stomachs with an enormously long British direct ophthalmoscope. We stopped to discuss a pale middle-aged man who had visual loss in both eyes. Hoyt asked the trembling assembly: ‘‘what is the first test you would do on this man?'' The dreaded oph-thalmoscope pointed around like the (moving) hands of a clock, and no one seemed to come up with the right answer. Exasperated, Hoyt finally turned to the little medical student-me . . . I had just expe-rienced pituitary tumors with (Lawton) Smith, so I suggested doing ‘‘a peripheral field examination''. 192 Trobe: J Neuro-Ophthalmol 2011; 31: 192-193 In Memoriam Copyright © North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. Hoyt beamed! The youngest, least experienced member of the circle had gotten it right. And with the next patient, no one recognized the third nerve misdirection but me. I was made. Glaser returned in 1970 to the BPEI as a faculty member to begin a distinguished 40-year academic career at a time when that single institution boasted 7 of the most famous neuro-ophthalmologists in the world. He became the chief author of the highly acclaimed textbook Neuro- Ophthalmology. The book eventually went into 3 editions. He coauthored more than 120 journal articles, trained more than 50 neuro-ophthalmology fellows, and delivered countless named lectures. Glasermet his wife Irena in 1977. He became the father of 4 wonderful children, Owen, Larah, Benjamin, and Jacob, and a grandfather toMayan. In his later years, he found great pleasure in playing the cello in an amateur orchestra. His fellows-I was one of them-remember him for the breadth of his knowledge, astounding insights, and acerbic wit. His legendary friendship with Norman J. Schatz, MD, with whom he practiced neuro-ophthalmology in Miami for the past 2 decades, sustained him after Irena died. Schatz was with him every day during the months before his death. Together they reminisced about the great medical stories and experiences that made them such terrific doctors and allowed them to have so much fun together. Joel Glaser brought a profound intellect and an enduring scholarship to the field of neuro-ophthalmology. He infused his professional life with a sweeping knowledge of history and culture. He was a brilliant teacher, a fascinating colleague, and a devoted father. He leaves a lasting legacy. Jonathan D. Trobe, MD Trobe: J Neuro-Ophthalmol 2011; 31: 192-193 193 In Memoriam Copyright © North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited. |
