Richard Hill, OD, PhD, FAAO
This has to be one of the most comprehensive, and entertaining, histories of a modern health science program assembled to date. I was privileged to spend nine years (1955 through 1964) at the School, experiencing it as a professional student, graduate student, and faculty member. Over the decades that followed, memories of those days, and the remarkable personalities that filled them, loomed large. Yet moving through these chapters brought them back with a clarity I would not have thought possible. It was, indeed, like being right there again. This is a remarkable achievement, and John Fiorillo and the team who brought it to fruition are to be highly commended.
Robert Mandell, OD, PhD, FAAO
I was aware that John Fiorillo was writing a history of optometry at UC Berkeley and assumed that he would do an outstanding job, but he has surpassed my highest expectations. This book is a model of what a history tome should be. Fiorillo studied countless documents and interviewed everyone he could possibly contact in order to be certain that he accurately depicted each stage in the School's evolution. A reader who has had any connection to the School's history will be captured by the feeling that he was involved in a unique academic achievement. Fiorillo puts it all together in a enticing fashion that will make you want to keep reading as though it were a favorite novel.
Lesley Walls, OD, MD, FAAO
First of all... the book is extremely well written in a style that keeps the reader's full attention. It is one of those books that you can't quit reading because it is so well done and so meaningful. The format and style of the book makes for easy reading and is very informative. Anyone who cares about the great profession of optometry with a connection to the UC Berkeley School of Optometry should love to have the book for reference and repeated reading. Although I have lived optometry for more than 40 years and felt I knew a lot about the School and the history, I actually knew very little.... The book is simply terrific.... I believe that everyone connected in some way to the School, especially the alumni, needs and will want a copy in their personal library.
Gerald Westheimer, OD, PhD, FRS, FAAO
If the published record of an institution is a measure of its standing, Berkeley Optometry is now firmly established. John Fiorillo's chronicle of the School from its founding to the present is in turn magisterial, exhaustive, encyclopedic, and candid. Documented to the hilt, mining institutional and organizational archives, filled with anecdotes, quotes, historical photographs, and facsimiles of original correspondence, it paints an absorbing picture of an optometric educational powerhouse coming of age — from the lens grinding lab of the 1920s to the refractive surgery suite of the 2010s, from a student body of all white males, attired in suit and tie, to one of wide-ranging diversity today, from a barely tolerated step child of the physics department to a vision science research enterprise with a world reputation.
Irving Bennett, OD, FAAO
There are many of us who love to read and study history, particularly optometric history. And more so when that history is interestingly written and well documented. This book authored by John Fiorillo on the history of the Berkeley Optometry fittingly fills those criteria. The text is a microcosm of the history of the profession of optometry, going back to the early days when tradesmen, with little or no formal education, sold eyeglasses, through the numerous trials and tribulations of seeking both professional recognition and a more comprehensive definition of the field's scope and function. The author rightly deduces that formal education is the thread that weaves the field into a respected, valued health care discipline. The accomplished faculty at Berkeley helped the cause substantially. The list of Berkeley faculty — many singled out for detailed reports on their historical contributions — reads like a Hall of Fame of optometric national leadership and professional educational and scientific advancement. John Fiorillo is a superb raconteur. He cleverly and masterfully intertwines small anecdotes and vignettes — both humorous and historic — into the straight factual text, making the book both a noteworthy and easy read.
Brian Chou, OD, FAAO
This book is a journalistic tour de force, chronicling the colorful and dynamic history of Berkeley Optometry. From the beginnings in the physics department in Le Conte Hall during the 1920s, to averting the optometry school's move to UCLA in 1943, to an 80-ton Italian stone pine tree that delayed construction of the Minor Addition in 1974, stories are interwoven effectively to show the evolution into a prominent, world-class institution. The history of the school is punctuated by struggles — interpersonal conflicts among academic leaders, the politics of organized medicine, challenges related to physical expansions, and years of financial distress of the optometry clinic, yet they collectively add perspective and character to the physical presence of Berkeley Optometry. With descriptions of noteworthy contributions in research, patient care, and leadership by esteemed members of Berkeley Optometry, more than 700 pages portray an institution built on the grit and ingenuity of its constituents. This book will make alumni, faculty, and students of Berkeley Optometry proud of their heritage and inspired to carry on the tradition of excellence. This book belongs in your hands.
