Virginia Leila Lubkin was born in New York City on October 26, 1914. She attended New York University, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1933 and graduating AOA from Columbia Physicians and Surgeons Medical School in 1937. After her internship, she completed her ophthalmology training at multiple hospitals in New York in the early 1940s, followed by ophthalmic plastic surgery training with Dr. Wendell Hughes. 

While she was a resident at Mount Sinai Hospital, an attending told her, “You will open the field of Ophthalmology to American women.”

Dr. Lubkin was in private practice and on the staff of Columbia Physicians and Surgeons and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEEI) from 1945 to 1990. In 1978, she founded the Aborn Center for Eye Research at the NYEEI, which was renamed the Aborn-Lubkin Eye Research Lab in 2004 in her honor.

Dr. Lubkin was a clinician, teacher, and researcher with numerous eclectic interests. In 1959, she published a paper with Dr Hughes introducing a fornix conformer. Her interest in history and archeology led to an article summarizing the history of Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery from 3000 BC to 1000 AD. Her intense curiosity led her to numerous research projects in Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery, which was the reason she established the Aborn Center for Eye Research.

During my Oculoplastics Fellowship in 1975-76 and my subsequent years as an attending at NYEEI, Dr. Lubkin was always ready to teach and shared what she had learned and experienced in her many years of practice with the residents and fellows. At the time, she was involved in research regarding dry eyes and frequently discussed her work.

Dr. Lubkin was active nationally and internationally. She was active in the American Academy of Ophthalmology, teaching a course in “Complications of Blepharoplasty” during the 1980’s. Internationally, she lectured in many countries. Her energy and interests went well beyond Ophthalmology, encompassing history and archeology as noted above. She was also on the Board of Directors of The Jewish Guild for the Blind in NYC.

Virginia was a very upbeat person, getting involved in everything around her and ahead of her time. For her generation, it was unusual that she kept her maiden name, never changing it to her married name. And she effectively balanced a challenging professional career with a full family life. I remember her at many spring meetings, passing me on hikes, frequently with her husband, affectionately referred to as “Marty.”

When Virginia Lubkin died on May 5, 2004, her family consisted of her husband, four children, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. She certainly led a prolific, energetic life, breaking barriers and being a role model for women in medicine. She played an important and integral role in the founding of our subspecialty.

The story of women and ASOPRS* begins with Margaret (Peg) F. Obear 1906-2001), the senior-most member of the “Gang of Five” Oculoplastic surgeons (Charles Beyer, George Buerger, Thomas Cherubini, Robert Wilkins, and Peg Obear) from New York who founded our Society in 1969. All five were fellows of Byron Smith, MD. They met after hours at Donohue’s pub and restaurant on Lexington Ave in New York City to discuss cases and plot towards our specialty having its own society. Obear, transplanted from California to New York, was well-connected, and she enthusiastically lobbied the leading oculoplastic surgeons across the US to support their cause. The “Gang of Five” founded ASOPRS in 1969 as a nonprofit educational 501(c)(3). This was a time when Oculoplastics was deciding whether to form its own society or ally with larger specialties such as plastic surgery or The American Academy of Facial Plastic Surgery. Peg’s efforts at reaching out to the renowned oculoplastic surgeons of the time led to a seminal 1969 ASOPRS organizational meeting held at the Palmer House in Chicago; about sixty persons attended, bylaws were adopted, and Wendell Hughes, former President of AAOO was elected the first ASOPRS President.

During WWII, female employment jumped from 27% to 37%. These women were paid 55% less than their male counterparts. With America's WWII factories, civilian population, and electrical supply lines under no risk of aerial bombardment, the US tapped the female labor pool so as to ramp up military-industrial production. At the same time, European countries were busy bombing and sabotaging each other’s infrastructure and industrial capacity. Some things never change. The US emerged as the victorious superpower capable of projecting kinetic force anywhere on the planet.

Women’s entry into the workforce naturally spurred an interest in higher-paid professions. However, the female path to higher education was a bumpy ride. Since college tuition was expensive, many families in the 1950s only sent the boys to college. Women who attended college were often offered two options; nursing or teaching. Upon graduation, women received a lower salary than men for the same work, the argument being that men were supporting a family, but women would get pregnant and quit. "The pill" and declining fertility rates helped women pursue their goals of equal pay and legal protections.  Fast-forward to the Women's Movement of the 70's and 80's which favored women in career roles. Workplace female figures such as Mary Tyler Moore appeared routinely on TV and in movies. This encouraged even more women to enter into the educated workforce, where they demanded equal treatment. The net effect was a gradual acceptance of women in the workplace as co-equal to men (Traditional roles still play an equally strong and often fulfilling role in many women's lives). As a result, college-educated women in American society have achieved remarkable progress in creating a path into the once-hostile workplace, similar to the achievements of minorities and gays. Nonetheless, the gender-based pay gap still persists. As well institutional racism and sexism are still present, but they are no longer omnipresent and unchallengeable. Troubling and destabilizing class, gender, and race-based wealth inequalities are widening.

My medical class of 1982 was 45% female. OR signage back then indicated Doctors' Changing Room and Nurses' Changing Room. It didn't seem that big a deal to me at the time; it took decades for me to understand the institutionalized nature of sexism. It was against this background that I first attended an ASOPRS meeting in the late 1980’s. Though women were common in medical school, it was rare to see women in Presidency or upper leadership positions, but I remember many notable and esteemed exceptions such as Barbara Beatty and Eva Hewes of Hewes flap fame, charter member Virginia Lubkin, and of course, Bernice Brown. My interaction with Dr. Bernice Brown concerned my OPRS journal manuscript entitled "Does Decompression Diminish Dysthyroid Discomfort?" I was jazzed that every word in the title began with the letter "D." 

Featuring Drs. Arthur, Daniel, and Jamie Lea Schaefer were inducted into ASOPRS in 1973, 1989, and 2020, respectively, and two Past Presidents of ASOPRS, Arthur in 1988 and Daniel in 2019.

Dr. Arthur Schaefer was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1923, the son of an Optician and professional musician.  He helped pay his way through Canisius College by working as a lab instructor, a shoe salesman at Sears, and a pianist in a band.  Before Frank Sinatra became famous, he asked them to perform a song or two with his band, but since he was unknown to them, they did not know if he could sing, and he was not from Buffalo, so his request was denied.  Art graduated from SUNY at Buffalo Medical School in 1947.  He completed his Residency in Ophthalmology at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital, now Erie County Medical Center (ECMC).  He did his informal fellowship with Dr Bryon Smith, where every several months, he would fly to NYC to spend the day in surgery picking Byron’s brain and again while dining with him that evening.

In postwar Korea, he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps and as Chief of Ophthalmology at the 121st Evac Hospital, where he worked with and taught the Korean army’s chief eye surgeon, among others.  He was then transferred to Japan, where he was appointed Chief of Ophthalmology at the 8169^th Hospital in Zama, Far Eastern Army Headquarters, where he also taught the Japanese Ophthalmic Surgeons.
 

Art established Buffalo’s first Oculoplastic Surgery Clinic in the early 1960s. 

He was a clinical professor of ophthalmology and a clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He was also a consultant at several hospitals in the area and served as director of ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery at ECMC and the Buffalo General Hospital.

In 1995, he was the 22nd individual and first Buffalonian to receive UB’s Lucian Howe Award and medal for his contributions to ophthalmology.

He was a Canisius college regent and, with Betty, his wife, established a Scholarship Fund at the college to assist pre-med students.

Art and Betty were recipients of the Knight and Lady of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.  In 1994 they were awarded Christ the King Seminary’s Cure of Ars Award for “faith-filled and dedicated service to others.”

He received many other awards and honors for his volunteer involvement from his alma mater, high school, college, medical school, religious organizations, and hospitals.  

Dr. Daniel P. Schaefer is a native of Buffalo, New York.  He graduated from Canisius College with a B.A. in Biology and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from SUNY at Buffalo in 1981.  After serving his internship in Internal Medicine at the University Program, SUNY at Buffalo Affiliated Hospitals in 1982, he completed his residency training in ophthalmology at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1985. He was elected and served as Chief Resident from 1984 to 1985.  An American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) sponsored a fellowship training program in Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery, which was completed at the Wills Eye Hospital and Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA. 1985 to 1986 under the preceptorship of Dr. Joseph C. Flanagan.

Dr Schaefer joined the Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY at Buffalo, New York, in 1986 and was promoted to Clinical Professor in 2001. He was appointed Co-Director of the Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery department in 1989 and promoted to Director from 1997 to 2022 while maintaining a private practice in Buffalo, New York. He has served as the Chief of Ophthalmology at St. Joseph Intercommunity Hospital for over 20 years and served as its President of the Medical Staff from 2001 to 2003.

Dr. Schaefer has served as Visiting Professor and lectured throughout the United States, Central America, South America, Africa, and India, has written numerous chapters and articles in the field of Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery, and has traveled frequently to several countries in Central America, South America, Africa and India, lecturing, providing medical services and surgeries in the field of Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery for those in need, while also teaching the local Ophthalmologists.

Dr. Schaefer was a member of the ASOPRS Education Committee 1991 to 2002, and its Chair 2000 to 2002, and CME Committee 1991 to 1998 and its Chair 1994 to 1998, Chair of the Committee for Transition of ASOPRS to Board Certification/Equivalency 2002 to 2009, was on the ASOPRS Foundation Board, President of the ASOPRS 2019, President of the Upstate New York District #1 American College of Surgeons and has served on its Committee for Membership Applicants since 1996 for 25 years, has been on the Medical Advisory Board of the American Society of Ocularists  1992 to 2009, was elected Chief Resident at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1984 to 1985, received the SUNY at Buffalo, New York Ophthalmology Resident Teaching Award five times, was presented the 4^th Kanchan Memorial Oration Award from the Kanchan Eye Hospital and Research Center, Murlidhar, Hyderabad, India in 1994, Recipient of the Signum Fidei Award from St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and inducted into the Society in 1999, Marlene and he were Bestowed Knighthood in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 2001 and advance to its highest order of Knight of the Grand Cross in 2011, received the Caritas Award from St. Joseph Intercommunity Hospital in 2002, received the Lifelong Education for Ophthalmologist Continuing Education Recognition Award and Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and inducted into The American Ophthalmological Society in 2008.

He was also very honored that his father had the pleasure of inducting him into the society when Art was President of the ASOPRS and presenting the ASOPRS diploma to him at the Business Meeting in Las Vegas on 10/7/88.  I just missed that honor with my daughter during my Presidency of ASOPRS in 2019.  My daughter, Dr. Jamie Lea Schaefer, finished her ASOPRS-approved Fellowship on 6/30/19.  She was the first and only third-generation ASOPRS member in 2020.

Dr. Schaefer is married to Marlene Ann Schaefer, and they have three daughters, Dawn Marie, Jamie Lea, and Alyce Daniela. They enjoy flying single-engine airplanes and motorcycles, scuba diving, snorkeling, traveling, sports, and music.  

JAMIE LEA SCHAEFER, M.D.