The Year OHS Began

The year 1969 was a time of tremendous change in American society as well as in the profession of optometry. In the broader culture, academics, students and community activists organized grassroots campaigns to change institutions from the bottom up. For optometry, this movement began with the January 1968 “LaGuardia” meeting, when a small group of optometrists planned a campaign to transform the profession by agitating for the American Optometric Association (AOA) to advocate for the expansion of the scope of practice. Ripe for change, the AOA membership began to respond. In June of 1968, despite early opposition, OHS founder Henry W Hofstetter was the first full-time academic to serve as president of the AOA. Only one year after La Guardia in February of 1969, the AOA held the Airlie House Conference which set a new course for the profession. When the movement to change optometry gained traction, the keepers of the culture began to recognize the need to document the past. In December of 1969, Hofstetter and the AOA Librarian Maria Dablemont founded the Optometric Historical Society to ensure the history of optometry would not be lost. This first-person reminiscence by Irving Bennett, O.D. recounts his recollections of the individuals and events instrumental in the formation of the OHS.