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BLOG: To my friend and lifelong mentor
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This week we all learned the sad news of the passing of Dr. Melvin D. Wolfberg. I got an email from Salus University where Mel served as president and then a more detailed notice from the American Academy of Optometry where Mel also served as president.
Most of you also know that Mel was a president of the American Optometric Association. I don’t need to repeat all of his accomplishments and accolades here, but rather want to tell the story of Mel, my mentor in optometry.
As a college student in the 1970s, I was unsure of a major or a direction for my career. After my sophomore year, I left school and got a great job in the construction industry. I had a huge interest in the theater and was considering returning to school with a theater major. To pursue this in my off year, I went to the community playhouse to try out for a play. I got one of the leading roles, and when I met the rest of the cast, I found that one of the other lead characters was a man named Mel Wolfberg.
We had a great time rehearsing and performing the show, and somewhere along the way, my new friend Mel convinced me that I should return to college, change my major to science and apply to optometry school. It seemed a bit far-fetched, as I had not been a stellar student and I was loving my construction gig, but Mel was very convincing. He told me that I had a great personality for optometry and that he would mentor me though the process. For Mel, these were not idle words.
He asked me to send him my grades and sent handwritten letters of encouragement each month while I was away at school. With his complete confidence in me, my grades skyrocketed, and I found a new passion for the pre-optometry curriculum.
Once I became a student at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO), Mel continued to mentor my optometry career. He encouraged me to run for class president and student council president, and as the student representative to the board of trustees of the college, he worked with me to gain full membership with voting privileges for the students. He continued to mentor me through the chairs of my local society and as state president. To Mel, mentorship was a lifelong endeavor.
I continue to thoroughly enjoy every aspect of the optometric profession. One of my fondest memories of Mel’s advice was his insistence that optometry was so much more than life in a dark room. He was so right. From teaching to consulting to writing and traveling the profession is a blast to those who seek out its many dimensions. We have optometrists that have led the American Public Health Association and one who has even been to outer space.
My last communications from my friend and mentor came in a handwritten letter much like my first letters. Same smooth penmanship, same words of wisdom. The letter was to congratulate me on my sons both going to PCO and joining the ranks as optometrists. He had heard about my oldest pushing the envelope of optometric services in the wilds of Alaska. He had also read one of my pieces about the growing glaucoma aspect of my practice. He never missed a trick.
I take this opportunity to say goodbye to my friend and mentor. I can only hope that I live up to his expectations and that I, too, can be a mentor for other young people who consider and pursue our wonderful profession.
Rest in peace, Mel. You have always been and will always be an inspiration to us all.