Eyeworld Supplements

16 | SUPPLEMENT TO EYEWORLD D r. Hoffer was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. His father was an auto mechan- ic, his mother a beautician. When he was 4 years old, his parents divorced, and Dr. Hof- fer and his younger brother were raised first by their maternal grandmother Mildred and later their mother Mary. In high school, Dr. Hoffer decided two things. "One, I was going to be a surgeon and, two, I was going to retire at 55," he said. He achieved at least one of these goals. While Dr. Hoffer, now 80, does not consider himself fully retired (although retired from clinical and surgical practice, he continues to contribute his knowledge to the profession in other ways), he did become a surgeon and spent 50 years in private practice. Initially, Dr. Hoffer thought he would become a heart surgeon, inspired by the world-renowned Dr. Michael DeBakey, aer seeing him on the cover of Time maga- zine. Aer writing Dr. DeBakey a letter, he was invited by him personally to intern for the summer as a first-year medical student. Aer spending two summers with Dr. DeBakey, Dr. Hoffer thought heart surgery would not afford him the family lifestyle he wanted. "I started thinking I'd like to get married and have a family someday, and I didn't think heart surgery was going to give me the opportunity to have a family and be a good, attentive father. In my third year, we had a rotation through ophthalmolog y and ENT. In ophthal- molog y, I watched the chief resident, Peter Kansas, MD, doing cataract surgery. I'm looking at that and thinking, 'My hands are just the right size for this.' I fell in love with the cataract operation itself." Dr. Hoffer went on to intern at Santa Monica Hos- pital, completed residency in ophthalmolog y at Wayne State University, Kresge Eye Institute in Detroit, Michi- gan, and returned to Santa Monica with his wife in June 1972. Dr. Hoffer and Marcia Hoffer have lived in Santa Monica ever since, a stone's throw from where he began AIOIS 50 years ago. e 29-year-old who started a society that changed the course of ophthalmic history A young Dr. Hoffer with his mother (le), Dr. Hoffer in the OR in 1975 (middle), and a later headshot (right). Source (all): Kenneth J. Hoffer, MD Dr. Hoffer (right) in the OR in 1975. Source: Kenneth J. Hoffer, MD LEADING A REVOLUTION

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