Ophthalmology community mourns Jack Kanski, author of milestone textbooks

by Richard B. Packard, MD, FRCS, FRCOphth

Jack Kanski

There can be very few ophthalmologists and other ophthalmic professionals across the globe who at one time or another will have not delved into a book by Jack Kanski, MD, MS, FRCS, FRCOphth. Anybody who trained in ophthalmology in the last 35 years would have been thankful for his extraordinary output of books on all aspects of this specialty to help them pass their exams.

Jack was born Jacek Jerzy Kaski on Aug. 5, 1939, in Warsaw, Poland. He was the son of Jerzy Jordan Kaski and Adela Jozefa (Wroblewska) Kaski. His father was a senior member on the staff of Marshal Edward migy-Rydz, the commander-in-chief of Polish forces at the start of World War II. After spending his first few years with his mother in war-torn Warsaw, they escaped from Poland in 1946 and settled in Great Britain. Apart from doing well at school academically, Jack was a keen and able soccer player, becoming a reserve for the England Schoolboys side. He qualified at The London Hospital Medical College in 1963, and after house jobs at the London, the Western Ophthalmic and Westminster hospitals, he became a resident at Moorfields Eye Hospital, High Holborn. In 1973, he was appointed as consultant surgeon at the Prince Charles Eye Unit in Windsor. By this stage, he had already published 17 papers particularly on one of his special interests, retinal detachment. Jack had started using automated vitrectomy devices for posterior segment conditions in the 1970s.

Another important aspect of his clinical career was his work on childhood uveitis in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA). This had been started by his predecessor, Ken Smiley, FRCS, at the Canadian Red Cross Hospital at Taplow. Here, Jack worked closely with the distinguished rheumatologist Barbara Ansell, CBE, FRCP, FRCS. Patients who used to come to them from all over the U.K. were grateful that they had revolutionized the management of inflammatory eye disease in JIA. His work in this field became the basis of his MD thesis in 1985 and later his MS in 1989. This was a unique combination of qualifications for an ophthalmologist at that time.

Jack, early on, had realized the importance of well-organized teaching materials and created a series of tape slide presentations in the mid-1970s. As a resident, he had started to collect a series of interesting cases with clinical photos. These were the precursors of his books, the first of which, Clinical Ophthalmology, was published in 1984. This was followed over the next 25 years by more than 30 books covering all aspects of ophthalmology. All the while, Clinical Ophthalmology was being updated with new editions and became the best-selling ophthalmology textbook ever. Many of these books were solely authored by Jack, but getting in experts in their field helped to keep the books current.

What made Jack Kanski so popular as an author was the style of his writing. It was at once didactic, but the text was always lavishly illustrated and the essential facts were easy to see as they were not surrounded by excessive verbiage.

Having handed over the editorship of Clinical Ophthalmology to Brad Bowling, FRCSEd(Ophth), FRCOphth, FRANZCO, after six editions, Jack continued to write, 11 books in all, but this time on world history, not ophthalmology. He could never stop writing despite his final illness.

Jack died on Jan. 5, 2019, from cancer with his wife, Val, at his side. He will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues.