Structure and organization

About the Foundation

Established by Thomas Heed in 1945, the Heed Ophthalmic Foundation provides funding to assist young men and women pursuing postgraduate studies in ophthalmology. The appointed individuals receive a Merit Award and are recognized as Heed Fellows.

History

Thomas Heed was an extremely successful businessman whose early years were spent in the railroad business. Later in life he served as president and director of a variety of companies including land, mining and lumber businesses.

Mr. Heed became involved in ophthalmology through two medical crises. As a young man of 19, he suffered from iritis and spent three months in a darkened room. Facing the possibility of complete blindness himself, Heed made a resolution to help prevent blindness through whatever means he could.

Years later his wife suffered a retinal detachment that was successfully repaired by Dr. Harry Gradle of Chicago. Dr. Gradle told Mr. Heed that the best approach to the prevention of blindness was to support postgraduate training of promising young eye doctors. Dr. Gradle emphasized that the teaching of new techniques for eye surgery and eye research programs was critical in advancing the knowledge and management of ocular disease.

In 1945, after Dr. Gradle suffered a stroke and discontinued his practice, Thomas Heed approached Dr. Vail, chairman of the ophthalmology department at Northwestern University Medical School. As Dr. Vail described this meeting, Mr. Heed approached him "out of the blue" and told him that he would like to establish a foundation for the purpose of training young eye surgeons.

Since Mr. and Mrs. Heed had no children or close relatives, they wanted to show their gratitude by giving the bulk of their large estate to the newly formed foundation. Dr. Vail assisted Mr. Heed in establishing the foundation and guiding formation of the original Board of Directors. The Heed Ophthalmic Foundation was formally established on May 29, 1946 and the first two fellows were appointed in 1947.

The history of the Heed Foundation tells how the personal eye afflictions suffered by Thomas and Ruth Heed resulted in the first post-graduate fellowship training opportunity in ophthalmology, an extraordinary program which has been and continues to be of benefit to ophthalmologists, our patients and society.

Heed Ophthalmic Foundation Directors

Frederick Cordes	1946-1964
John Dunnington	1946-1966
R. Townley Paton	1946-1966
M. Hayward Post	1946-1966
Derrick Vail	1946-1965
Michael Hogan	1965-1975
Arthur DeVoe	1967-1975
Samuel McPherson, Jr.	1967-1985
Frank Newell	1967-1993
David Shoch	1967-1990
Charles Campbell	1975-1989
Claes Dohlman	1975-1989
Froncie Gutman	1983-2001
Bradley Straatsma	1984-1998
Lee Jampol	1990-2007
Stephen Kramer	1991-2002
Stuart Fine	1992-2009
Morton Goldberg	1999-2004
Paul Lichter	2002-2011
Michael Kass	2003-2012
Stanley Chang	2005-2011
David Wilson	2008-2017
Steve McLeod	2010-2019
Eduardo Alfonso	2012-2021
Joan Miller	2012-2021
Nicholas Volpe	2013-Present
Julia Haller	2018-Present
George ‘Jack’ Cioffi	2020-Present
Todd Margolis	2021-Present
Terri Young	2021-Present
Bennie Jeng	2023-Present