This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Guy Knolle Jr., MD, FACS, dies at age 80
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Ophthalmic innovator, author and mentor Guy Edmund Knolle Jr., MD, FACS, died on Aug. 30 at age 80.
Knolle was born and raised in Houston. He obtained a bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin and earned a medical degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans in 1962.
After graduating from Tulane, Knolle completed a medicine internship and glaucoma fellowship at Barnes Hospital Group in St. Louis. He was also an ophthalmic resident at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and completed his formal training in 1968.
Knolle served as a captain and ophthalmologist in the U.S. Army at Ireland Army Hospital at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He was honorably discharged and began private practice in Houston in 1968. He also became a private pilot and flew for most of his life.
Knoll studied with pioneers in phacoemulsification and IOL surgery in the early 1970s. He was a clinical instructor at Baylor College of Medicine, developed an IOL and surgical instruments, and published numerous articles and textbook chapters. He taught and chaired several courses in the U.S. and abroad.
He is survived by his wife, Sue Ellen Young Griffin Knolle, MD, and his three children and their families.
Tribute to Guy Knolle, MD
Guy Knolle, MD, was the top surgeon in Houston when I was practicing with Bill Harris, MD, in Dallas in the late 1970s. We did many phacoemulsification courses together, and Guy was a major contributor to the early development of phacoemulsification and IOLs. He was a founding member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and later served as its president. Then, he tired of life in the fast lane, closed his large practice in Houston and found the love of his life in a second marriage. He moved to Austin, started a boutique solo practice, bought a home on a private airstrip, parked his plane in front of his home and had the best years of his life. He was passionate about ophthalmology, flying, hunting, family and his friends. He was a committed ASCRS member and loved ophthalmology, especially phaco and IOLs, and caring for patients one at a time. Too many great old friends passing — I will miss him.
Richard L. Lindstrom
Richard L. Lindstrom, MD, OSN Chief Medical Editor