Founding Optometrist—George Louis Schneider

Beginnings

George Louis Schneider (May 16, 1874–November 14, 1928) was born in Redding, California, where he spent his boyhood on a farm. His parents, Louis and Anna, were born in Germany, and he had an older sister named Sophie. In the 1890s he left home to pursue advanced education, graduating from what became the Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Peoria, Illinois. He completed his professional training at the Chicago Ophthalmic College, apparently in 1897, and began his first optometric business ventures in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Around 1899 Schneider returned to the West, settling in Stockton, California, where he worked for Charles Haas & Son in their optical department. Schneider resided for a time in Stockton Ward-2, San Joaquin, California, where he was a lodger in the home of his future wife, Harriet Hull Nicewonger, and her parents, Lucius Hayes Nicewonger and Cynthia Ann Nicewonger. George Schneider married Harriet in Stockton on May 22, 1901.

Schneider began his long and dedicated involvement with organized optometry in 1897, working with colleagues on the formation of the American Association of Opticians (established 1898; it was renamed the American Optical Association in 1910 and the American Optometric Association in 1919). He was also a founding member of the California State Association of Opticians (established 1899; later called the California Optometric Association), serving as its first secretary until 1901.

In 1907, a year or two after leaving Stockton and opening an optometric practice in Berkeley, Schneider served as the first secretary of the Alameda County Society of Optometrists (founded 1907). He continued his professional ascent when he was elected president of the California State Association of Optometrists in 1910 and then president of the American Optical Association for two consecutive terms in 1911 and 1912.

Schneider was also a civic leader in the city of Berkeley. He served as president of the Chamber of Commerce (one year), the Berkeley Downtown Association (two years), and the City Planning Commission (one year). He was elected the first president of the Berkeley Rotary Club, as one of twenty-one professionals and merchants who founded the organization in February 1916. In addition, Schneider was an amateur entomologist with an intimate knowledge of the collections of insects kept by the Division of Entomology in the Department of Agriculture on the UC Berkeley campus.

Schneider leads a revolt at the national convention in 1911

Although Schneider was a popular and familiar figure to many optometrists around the country, he had never been a high-profile delegate at the annual conventions of the American Optical Association (later called the American Optometric Association). All that changed when, by a vote of 34 to 14, Schneider was unexpectedly elected president of the national association following a coup staged by western-state delegates during the fourteenth annual convention in Salt Lake City, August 7–11, 1911. Fortunately for the American Optical Association, Schneider led the way toward a historic rewriting of the constitution and bylaws—changes that remain largely in effect to this day.

Until 1911, annual conventions and the governance of optometry nationwide had been dominated by New York and Pennsylvania delegates. As Schneider put it, "We in California had become tired of paying national dues because there appeared to be no returns and the little money in our treasury was sorely needed at home.... we agreed that ... we could possibly influence an ultimate reorganization which would be equitable to the entire United States and Canada. Consequently, the big event at Salt Lake ... was to establish a new Constitution and By-laws…."³

Passage of the revised constitution and bylaws required another year and a follow-up convention in 1912 in Chicago, when the widely popular Schneider was reelected by acclamation for a second term. Brought to fruition by tireless advocacy on the part of Schneider and others, a more equitable distribution of influence signaled a sea change within the national organization. New arrangements for regional representation brought the association into the modern era by breaking down geographical barriers and providing constitutional mechanisms for a more coherent national voice.

Establishing a curriculum in optometry at UC Berkeley

In 1907 Schneider chaired a committee deputized by the California State Association of Opticians to meet with UC President Benjamin Wheeler. They proposed, for the first time, a curriculum in optometry at University of California at Berkeley. From that point on—sixteen years in all— Schneider was relentless in organizing and lobbying for the course. He met frequently with University officials and faculty, and he continuously promoted the curriculum before California local and state optometric societies. Through it all he faced opposition not only from organized medicine (primarily ophthalmology), but also from within the optometry profession— obstructionists he once described as "scamps within our ranks."

At a time when educational standards in optometry were generally lax or non-existent, Schneider summed up his philosophy by stating, "I am firmly convinced that the whole superstructure of optometry, organization and all, depends absolutely upon a higher standard of education."⁴ From 1912 to 1916 he shrewdly encouraged local optometrists to take undergraduate lecture courses in physics, anatomy, and physiology, not only to avail themselves of an opportunity to advance their technical knowledge, but also "to gradually acquaint the institution or its staff with the public need for instruction in our profession."⁵

In 1915 Schneider served as president of a committee in charge of the first University general science courses made available expressly for optometrists; these were offered as non-degree University Extension undergraduate classes. One course on optics and refraction featured a set of fifteen lectures given by Professor of Physics Ralph Minor, who would become the first dean of Berkeley Optometry.

Late in 1917, George Schneider was named chairman of a new Optometry Course Committee sanctioned by the California State Association of Optometrists. On November 20, 1917, the committee went before faculty appointed by the University Council to urge the establishment of a "professional course in optometry." By early 1918 the Council approved the curriculum in principle, and its faculty members thereafter were in favor of a curriculum, assuming they could work out the particulars, including funding. On November 5, 1919, a formal proposal for a course in optometry was brought before the University Council and soon after presented to the Faculty Senate.

Schneider, Minor, and others continued to work on the organization of the curriculum while the proposal made its way through the University bureaucracy. In the meantime, the issue of financing the curriculum, which had to be "self-supporting," remained a significant impediment. It was Schneider who, in 1922–1923, headed a statewide campaign to raise funds from licensed optometrists. The campaign raised more than $9,000 (a considerable sum in those days) for the first year of instruction. The University accepted the pledges raised by Schneider in June 1923. Subsequent years were funded by a portion of the state licensing fees until 1949, when the University finally took over providing financial support of the optometry program.

Reluctantly, George Schneider became the first Lecturer in Optometry at UC Berkeley. Initially, the always modest Schneider declined the offer to lecture, concerned that his promotion of the curriculum would be seen as self-interested if he took a faculty position. Nevertheless, he was persuaded to accept, whereupon he taught Practical Optics, and Elementary and Advanced Theoretical Optometry, until illness forced him to retire prematurely.

Final Days

In 1923 George Schneider brought the negotiations for a curriculum in optometry to a triumphant close, capping a sixteen-year campaign. As the first lecturer in optometry, he contributed toward the initial stages of implementing and advancing the new program. The curriculum represented not only a validation of his beloved profession, but also a unique opportunity for his personal development as an optometrist and lecturer. These were heady days, but for Schneider they were profoundly compromised by personal sadness.

On February 28, 1920, Schneider's mother, Anna M. Schneider, passed away at his home (1021 Mariposa Ave., Berkeley) at the age of seventy-seven. In August 1920, Schneider lost his fourteen-year-old daughter Georgia to diphtheria, a highly contagious upper-respiratory disease that killed tens of thousands of children in the U.S. during the 1920s. The source of her illness may have been contaminated plumbing at her high school. A third family tragedy followed when Schneider's twelve-year-old (third) child, Carleton Louis Schneider, died of complications from diabetes on November 11, 1921, just months before the discovery of insulin. Schneider faced yet another loss when his wife Hattie and her mother (Cynthia A. Nicewonger), traveling by motorcar, were struck by a westbound Southern Pacific electric train at the High Street crossing in Oakland on October 23, 1924. Although seriously injured, Schneider's mother-in-law survived; Hattie suffered a basal skull fracture and internal injuries, rendering her unconscious until she passed away on the evening of October 24.⁶

Schneider was a changed man after these tragedies. As the mounting sorrows were taking their toll, he nearly lost his sole surviving son, Paul, to meningitis in 1927. Not long after, Schneider began to exhibit depressive behavior and physical deterioration. He took a leave of absence from his lecturing duties at the University; never again would he experience the joy of teaching optometry students.

After an illness of six months, George Schneider died in hospital on November 14, 1928. He was only 54 years of age. The Optometric Weekly reported that "Doctor Schneider was taken ill last Spring with what seemed to be a nervous breakdown and later suffered a stroke of paralysis." It described him as the "leader of all leaders of optometry…. He was a true and devoted son of optometry, one-half of his life being spent for the welfare of the cause, and he left behind him the sweetest memories of any leader who has said farewell to the scene of his earthly activities."⁷

Tributes to a departed leader

In 1947, the subcommittee on the history of the UC Berkeley Optometry School sent a report to alumnus Angus Murchison McLeod ('25), chair of the "Twenty-fifth Anniversary of U. C. School of Optometry Committee" (appointed by the California Optometric Association, which was sponsoring and organizing the celebration for June 1948). The subcommittee was responsible for gathering materials on the history of the program.

In their report, they acknowledged important contributors to the course in optometry, but they singled out one person:

Geo. L. Schneider stands out almost as a "gift from heaven" as the chairman of the committee—after studying the various letters and documents in our possession it appears that his talents and gifts were almost without end—his ideals, patience, persistence, charity, knowledge and love of his profession of optometry—to these talents and to his tireless efforts we believe it is fair to credit to a very large degree the teamwork and cooperation that was maintained throughout the state, and also the personal recognition of optometry's merits that came from many members of the University faculty. He was one man whom we should truly honor.⁸

Today's Berkeley Optometry students probably know George Schneider best as the namesake of the Dr. George L. Schneider Memorial Scholarship Fund, established jointly by the California Optometric Association and the Optometry Alumni Association of UC (accepted by the UC Regents in June 1950, with allocation of funds in March 1951). The scholarship is a perpetual fund granting stipends to one or more students each year.

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