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Colleagues remember Carl Camras, MD, FACS
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 Carl Camras |
The glaucoma community is a closely knit group, held together in part by the harshness of the disease process that a consultative glaucoma specialist is called upon to treat. Given this common bond and rapport, when a member of this community passes on in the prime of his career, it is a tremendous loss for all of us.
Carl Camras, MD, FACS, was a brilliant researcher, teacher, clinician, mentor and family man. I had the chance to serve on the faculty at the Gifford-Truhlsen Alumni meeting hosted by the University of Nebraska Medical Center a year ago. Dr. Camras was the consummate host: gracious, classy, incredibly knowledgeable and obviously loved by all around him.
Carol B. Toris, PhD, has worked as closely with Dr. Camras as anyone. This is her tribute to him. Godspeed, Carl Camras. You have been an inspiration to so many.
– Thomas W. Samuelson, MD
OSN Glaucoma Section
Editor
Carl Camras, MD, FACS, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, died at home on April 14 after a long and brave battle with constrictive pericarditis. He was a highly respected medical leader, caring physician, dedicated teacher and renowned scientist.
Carl (he never liked being called Dr. Camras) was born in Glencoe, Ill., on Nov. 23, 1953, majored in biochemistry at Yale University, attended medical school at Columbia University, and completed residency at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute followed by a glaucoma fellowship at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He served on the faculty at Mount Sinai from 1983 to 1991 and at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha from 1991 until his death. Carl served as chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at UNMC for the past 9 years. He was married for nearly 30 years to his wife, Nancy, and raised two loving daughters, Melanie and Lucinda.
When Carl was asked to become our chairman, he sought advice from other chairmen around the country. Each of them told him if he took the position, he would have to cut back on research, patient care, surgeries or teaching. He listened politely and then did it all anyway. He found the time to mentor and support each and every one of us. He increased the size of the department until it outgrew the clinic building, and then he put his energies into designing a new building.
Carl was a clinician of distinction, having received the Hippocratic Dignity Award, the Special Professional Achievement Award and the Physician of Distinction Recognition Award from UNMC to name a few. As a clinician, he showed honesty, integrity and the greatest respect for others. His patients were known to wait hours to see him rather than reschedule with another clinician. He never thought of protecting his intellectual property with a patent.
Carl’s research was known throughout the world. He had 286 publications, including peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, editorials, review articles and abstracts. He had 23 named special awards and more than 200 invited presentations in 29 countries around the world.
He doggedly pursued research into using prostaglandins to treat glaucoma, through the approval of latanoprost for clinical use and on to phase 4 trials and bench-top experiments.
Carl Camras’ extraordinary professional accomplishments are only a small part of what made him so widely known and respected. His untimely death is a great loss to us all. He is and always will be greatly missed.
- Carol B. Toris, PhD, was a friend, colleague and research collaborator of Carl Camras for 18 years. She can be reached at the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 985540 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE 68198-5540; 402-559-7492; e-mail: ctoris@unmc.edu.