DOI: 10.1097/WNO.0b013e31814b2385

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PMID: 17895824

Issn Print: 1070-8022

Publication Date: 2007/09/01


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Joel Glaser A Scholar's Scholar

Jonathan D Trobe

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Joel S. Glaser, MD, is widely considered one of the great scholars of neuro-ophthalmology. Educated at Duke University, the University of Miami, and the University of California, he has trained over 50 fellows. He is the author of Neuro-Ophthalmology, a highly respected and widely read single-volume textbook of neuro-ophthalmology first published in 1978 and shortly to emerge in its fourth edition. He has had a long and fruitful career at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which at one time employed the largest roster of neuro-ophthalmologists ever to be assembled on one faculty. Recruited by Edward W. D. Norton, MD, then the chair of ophthalmology and himself a passionate neuro-ophthalmologist turned retina surgeon, these neuro-ophthalmologists were known as the “Miami Seven” (Lawton Smith, Noble David, Robert Daroff, Todd Troost, John McCrary, Norton, and Glaser). Having joined the Bascom Palmer faculty in 1970, Glaser is the longest running member of the Miami Seven. In collaboration now with neuro-ophthalmologist colleagues Norman Schatz and Byron Lam, Glaser is in his 37th year as a major contributor to the field.
This interview took place at his home in Coconut Grove, Florida, on December 22, 2006.
JDT: Joel, where were you born?
JSG: In Brooklyn, New York. Both of my parents were born and raised there. My father was in the practice of eye, ear, nose, and throat in Flatbush.
JDT: And your grandparents?
JSG: My mother's parents were from Ukraine. Her name was Umansky. The little town she came from-Uman-is still there. There are, of course, no Jews there now, but it was once a great Talmudic center. My father's parents were from Riga, Latvia-Prussian Jews. They would all have come to the United States by boat in the late 19th century. It's a great pity that I don't know more about my ancestry. I had only one living grandparent when I was a child-Fanny Umansky, who lived with us. I did not record and I cannot remember much of what she told us. She loved my father. Although she kept kosher, she would cook one of his favorites -bacon-once a month. She was a great cook. Probably how I got fat…
JDT: What language was spoken at home?
JSG: English. They saved Yiddish as their code language-for when they didn't want us kids to understand.
JDT: Were your parents religiously observant?
JSG: Not really. But my father was very knowledgeable. Later, when we were living in Orlando, Florida, the rabbi left town and, as president of the congregation, my father felt responsible to lead the Friday services-which he did! He had done a tremendous amount of reading to prepare for that. He also read about two or three nonreligious books a week in addition to practicing medicine. He also played the violin and flute. I like to think that I am like him in many ways.
JDT: Where did your father train?
JSG: He went to medical school at Columbia University. He started in ENT at Columbia and then he went to the University of Pennsylvania to study with a famous bronchoscopist named Jackson.
JDT: And where did he learn ophthalmology?
JSG: Mostly self-taught. I've looked at his ophthalmology textbooks and, judging from the heavy underlining, I think he learned a lot of it on his own. Some he learned as a preceptor in other people's practices.
JDT: How did the family get to Orlando?
JSG: We wound up there because my father was in the Medical Corps during the Second World War. Toward the end of the war, he was stationed at Camp Blanding in Starke, Florida, just outside Gainesville. When the war ended, my parents did not want to go back to Brooklyn.

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