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The first successful cornea transplant was performed in Austria in 1905, decades before the invention of specialized equipment, tissue storage media and procedures that are today considered indispensable elements in the provision of transplantable eye tissue.

Across the ocean and a little more than a decade later, John Woodworth Henderson was born in Iowa. During his childhood, his family moved to South Dakota, then to California, where he graduated from high school in 1932. Shortly after the outset of World War II, Henderson graduated from Northwestern University’s medical school, got married and began his internship at University of Michigan Hospital.

Several years later, an increase in postwar funding enabled faculty in the University’s Ophthalmology Department to pursue and strengthen their individual academic interests. Dr. Henderson’s interest in the cornea – and the transplantation process – would eventually provide the clinical basis for the formation of the Michigan Eye-Bank.

It was 1956 when an Ann Arbor pharmaceutical salesman named Max Warren learned he was suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. He knew he didn’t have long to live, but in spite of his own personal trauma, Warren was committed to helping others in any way he could. To that end, he approached his brother-in-law, Bob Tilford, who was then President of the Ann Arbor (Host) Lions Club.

“He came to me and expressed the wish to donate his eyes,” Tilford recalled, years later. “But how? There was no way to do it.”

Tilford went back to the Ann Arbor (Host) Lions Club with Warren’s wish to somehow donate his eyes for transplantation.

“Everyone in the room that day really grabbed the idea,” Tilford said. “‘Why don’t we, the Ann Arbor (Host) Lions Club, see to it?’ they all said. So, really, the whole club deserves the credit… At first, we wondered whether the University would be willing to cooperate, but Dr. Henderson was highly enthusiastic.”

Tilford, along with John Paup, immediate Past President of the Ann Arbor (Host) Lions and Chairman of the club’s Sight Restoration Committee, met with Dr. Henderson in 1956. Their enthusiasm was mutual, and soon Paup, Tilford and Henderson were speaking with Lions Clubs throughout the region.

The idea for an eye bank went statewide during the 1957 Lions State Convention, and was met with tremendous support. It was not without opposition, however, from those who supported other projects.

Meanwhile, back in Ann Arbor, a photoengraver for the Ann Arbor News was anxiously awaiting a cornea transplant. Tom Walker, a 29-year-old husband and father, suffered from a corneal disease called kerataconus, and his vision was deteriorating rapidly.

When a donated cornea finally became available for Walker, he was notified and surgery arrangements were quickly made. At the time, corneas could not be stored for more than a few hours. Walker put his faith in Dr. Henderson, who assembled a surgical team at 11:30 p.m. to complete the transplant procedure.

Walker’s vision was restored by the first cornea to be recovered and utilized by what would become the Michigan Eye-Bank.

The Ann Arbor (Host) Lions and Dr. Henderson persisted on their quest for support of the eye bank program. Henderson originated the idea of eye bank substations, establishing a network of hospitals and surgeons to recover and transport eye tissues across the state. He set up what was known as the “eyeball network” of ham radio operators to communicate between stations, and involved the Michigan State Police for eye tissue transport as well.

Substations played a critical role in the recovery and delivery of transplantable eye tissue. The earliest substations included Adrian, Jackson, Bay City, Lathrup Village and Midland; all were managed with the assistance of Lions Club members and local hospitals. The 1960s saw tremendous growth in the number of substations statewide, and an increase in the eye bank program’s financial stability. In addition to his support through the Lions Club, John Paup served as treasurer for the growing organization until 1974.

Fellow Ann Arbor (Host) Club member Art Gallagher established the eye bank’s first newsletter, communicating with constituent groups and supporters throughout the program’s service area. Soon, the eye bank – or the Michigan Eye Collection Center, as it was known in those days – had garnered the support of Lions throughout Michigan.

Eye-Banks began to appear across the United States. An effort to standardize, regulate and guide eye banking practices nationwide resulted in the formation of the Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA) in 1961, an organization that today is recognized by the American Academy of Ophthalmology as the accrediting body for all U.S. eye banks. The Michigan Eye Collection Center was one of the first eye banks to participate in EBAA, and has played a leadership role in developing clinical standards throughout the organization’s history.

Years before the eye bank in Michigan had developed anything resembling its Ambassador Program, which supports donor family members and transplant recipients, it was already forming meaningful relationships through the miracle of corneal transplantation. Enter Don Massnick, who had suffered from vision problems that began during his high school and college years in the late 1940s. By late 1958, Massnick was under the care of Dr. Henderson, who placed him on the waiting list for a cornea at that time. It wasn’t until nearly two years later, in September, 1960, that the call finally came.

The operation was a success. After a month in the hospital, Massnick’s stitches were removed and his corrected vision was nearly 20/20.

“This experience made me want to get involved in this enterprise called the eye bank,” Massnick remembers. He was named the eye bank’s Publicity Director in 1964 and remained involved as the organization grew from its roots in Ann Arbor to a collaborative effort between U of M and Wayne State University’s Kresge Eye Center in Detroit. Massnick was also an active Lion who would later serve on the eye bank’s Board of Directors and, in 1978, become the organization’s president.

The Lions of Michigan made the Michigan Eye-Bank a State Project in 1971, and it officially became a 501(c)(3) charitable not-for-profit in 1973. Things were happening fast: Dr. John Cowden, then Medical Director for Eye-Bank operations at Kresge, anticipated the need for additional funding and infrastructure. Cowden, with the help of fellow Detroit cornea surgeon Dr. William Albert, played a key role in setting up third-party reimbursements for Eye-Bank services, providing much-needed income to the organization.

The Eye-Bank’s network of Substations remained active throughout the 1970s and ‘80s. Lions volunteers such as Don Daniels, George Cole, Jerald Stone and Patrick Cook traveled countless miles to transport eye tissue. Stone was a charter member of the Lathrup Village Lions who went on to organize successful garage sale fundraisers for the Eye-Bank through his club and, later, served on the Michigan Eye-Bank Advisory Council. Cook formed the Mt. Clemens Substation at the Eye-Bank’s request, and his commitment to the Eye-Bank became a family affair as his wife and son became transport volunteers. Cook and Cole both went on to serve as Eye-Bank Board members for many years.

As eye tissue recoveries began to occur in a wider geographic area, a dedicated team of transporters took to the highways. Organizations like Bay County REACT (Radio Emergency Associated Communications Team) and the Michigan State Police, along with such enthusiastic supporters as Ray Collar and Don Nelson, picked up eye tissue across the state and carried it safely and swiftly back to the Eye-Bank’s laboratory in Ann Arbor. Although improved corneal storage media, communications technology and a broader volunteer bas have relieved much of the burden on individual transporters and substations, many of these transporters remain active today. Bay County REACT alone made nearly 3,000 trips to the Eye-Bank as of 2007.

Lions remained actively involved as the Michigan Eye-Bank began looking toward the future – one in which the facility would have a space of its own. In 1979, Don Massnick and recently-hired Managing Director of the Eye-Bank, Dick Fuller, met with Dr. Paul Lichter, representing the University of Michigan Hospital and its Department of Ophthalmology. Lichter informed Massnick and Fuller that plans were in the works for a new eye center, one that would house all eye and vision research and education functions. It seemed a natural fit for the Eye-Bank to make its home there. Dr. Roger Meyer, Medical Director of the Ann Arbor facility, was instrumental in pitching to concept to the Eye-Bank Board of Directors. In July, 1979, the Board approved a $2,000,000 campaign to raise funds for the Eye-Bank to occupy a floor of the new research center. The Eye-Bank held its first meeting with the Lions Eye-Bank State Committee, whose enthusiasm and dedication garnered widespread support for the campaign.

Don Garber, serving as the Eye-Bank’s Director of Development, spearheaded the fundraising effort – a $2,000,000 capital campaign that relied heavily upon Lions support. As they had done throughout the preceding 25 years, the Lions came through for the Eye-Bank, helping give birth to its first true home at the University of Michigan’s new Kellogg Eye Center. Groundbreaking for the new facility took place in April, 1983.

As the campaign was getting underway, so too was a brand-new concept in eye banking: the Michigan Eye-Bank’s Eye and Vision Research Program. A Research Review Committee was selected in October, 1980 to help the Eye-Bank identify promising research projects for the seed money grants it could provide. The first committee consisted of Bob Eisenhardt, who was instrumental in establishing the Research Program, as well as Jerry Wiesbach, M.D., Venkat Reddy, Ph.D., Harry Maisel, M.D. and Peter Ward, M.D. Ward is renowned researcher, and remains an active member of the Research Review Committee.

The Michigan Eye-Bank’s Eye and Vision Research Program was the first of its kind in eye banking and, at the time, was also one of the largest private sources of funding in the country for ophthalmological research. By the dawn of the new millennium, as the program entered its 20 th year, the Eye-Bank had contributed nearly $2 million in support of promising research into the causes of blinding eye conditions.

The Eye and Vision Research Program’s success can be attributed, in large part, to ongoing support the Eye-Bank received from the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation. Dr. Henry Gray, a cornea transplant recipient and Eye-Bank volunteer from Midland, helped to bring the Eye-Bank’s research efforts to the attention of the Gerstacker Foundation. Andy Watson, an active Lion, Substation chair, former Eye-Bank president and Board member for many years, also played a key role in garnering their support. Thanks in part to the foundation’s generosity, the Michigan Eye-Bank remains one of the only eye banks in the world with its own research program.

However, Gray and Watson weren’t the only influential Eye-Bank advocates in the Midland area. John Swank, who had already been an active Lion for many years, became directly involved with the Eye-Bank in the early 1970s. In addition to revitalizing the Midland Substation of the Eye-Bank, Swank was a force behind the “Midland Resolution” – the action that ultimately established the Eye-Bank as a Lions-supported organization that would operate independently of Lions International, with its own administrative team. He later served as President of the organization, as did Andy Watson the following year.

The Michigan Eye-Bank settled into its new home in the Kellogg Eye Center in 1985, at the outset of negotiations to affiliate with the Illinois Eye-Bank in Chicago.

Both eye banks sought to benefit from the collaboration and the sharing of clinical and administrative resources. Working with Dr. Joel Sugar, the Illinois Eye-Bank’s Medical Director, Michigan Eye-Bank Medical Director Dr. Roger Meyer provided much-needed professional support for the merger, helping create the organization that became known as Midwest Eye-Banks and Transplantation Center, or MEBTC. The administrative headquarters remained in Ann Arbor, and the Eye-Bank’s Board of Directors took on corporate responsibility.

The Michigan Eye-Bank’s growth continued when, in 1989, it took over operation of the Upper Peninsula Lions Eye Bank in Marquette. This broadened the Eye-Bank’s service area to include the entire Upper Peninsula. Lion Bob Atkins and the U.P. Lions Eye Bank’s Medical Director, Busharat Ahmad, M.D., were both instrumental in the Eye Bank’s affiliation with the Michigan Eye-Bank. Both also went on to serve on Midwest Eye-Banks’ Board of Directors.

During that same year, Marilyn Lindenauer was appointed President and CEO. “Marilyn presided over the organization during a time of major growth and innovation that distinguished the Michigan Eye-Bank as a leader in eye banking,” said Florence Johnston, who succeeded Lindenauer as CEO in 1998. Lindenauer helped to recruit and solidify a loyal Board of Directors whose influence was there to guide the Eye-Bank into the new millennium. Through the years it included such dedicated members as Bill Hanel, Bert Rivette, A. Charles Weir, Granville Cutler, William “Doc” Barr, Pat Cook and John Krienke – all of whom are longtime supporters who remain directly involved with the Eye-Bank to this day, with the exception of Cutler, who passed away in 2008.

The late 1980s and early 1990s were times of tremendous growth for the Michigan Eye-Bank. The number of full-time staff increased rapidly to meet new clinical, regulatory and administrative demands. Along with an increase in the number of eye donors and transplant recipients came a growing number of volunteers dedicated to supporting the Eye-Bank’s mission. These volunteers, known today as Eye-Bank Ambassadors, gave their time and energy to assist in special events, distribute materials to promote donation awareness and represent the Eye-Bank statewide through speaking engagements in their own communities. Today, the number of Ambassadors in Michigan has grown to nearly 500.

Most of those who volunteered to become Eye-Bank Ambassadors were donor family members and transplant recipients who wanted a meaningful way to acknowledge the gift of sight that was given and received. After losing her teenage daughter in a car accident and consenting to cornea donation, Connie Ayres joined the Ambassador Program. Since that time, Connie has been among the Michigan Eye-Bank’s most active volunteers. She has also joined the Michigan Donor Family Council and her local Lions Club.

One cornea donated by Connie’s daughter saved the eyesight of Carmen Muglia, who was an infant at the time. More than a decade later, Carmen and her family have also become Ambassadors. Carmen even appeared on the cover of a Michigan Donor Registry brochure.

Carmen wasn’t the only young child who gave something back to the Eye-Bank after receiving a second chance for sight. Travis Sale was also an infant when he suffered a corneal melt – a rare occurrence that can mean permanent eye loss if not treated quickly. The Michigan Eye-Bank rushed a donated cornea to Travis’ eye surgeon, who performed a transplant and saved the young boy’s eye. Travis and his family have provided their ongoing support to the Eye-Bank through the Ambassador Program and financial contributions ever since.

Similarly, when a youngster named Patrick Pruitt received a sight-saving transplant, he and his family made a commitment to acknowledge the gift by becoming active Ambassadors. As a young boy, Patrick spoke at numerous Eye-Bank events, and he and his family have remained close to the Eye-Bank since that time. As an adult, Patrick has represented the Eye-Bank and cornea recipients on a national level.

Transplant recipients of all ages have expressed their gratitude to the Eye-Bank through their volunteer efforts. Recipient Jerry Redoutey has been an active Ambassador for many years and contributed his expertise as a Master Gardener in the creation of the Eye-Bank’s Donor Memorial Garden. Recipient Marjorie Gunn, also an active Ambassador, has spread the word about eye donation through letters to local newspaper editors, distribution of Eye-Bank materials and special guest appearances on local television and radio. Those guest appearances wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of Battle Creek TV personality Dave Eddy, who has graciously invited Gunn to appear on his show during Eye Donor Month each year for more than a decade.

The Ambassador Program has become a resource for donor family members, so too have the Michigan Donor Family Council and the Michigan Donor Family Foundation. Donor parents Dave and Barb Gerber were founding members of both organizations, and have been active Eye-Bank Ambassadors since 1999. The Eye-Bank is proud to partner with these organizations in the promotion of donor awareness and education.

Partnership with other organizations has become a major theme for the Eye-Bank in the new millennium. One of its most meaningful collaborative relationships is with Gift of Life Michigan, the official organ procurement agency (OPO) of the State of Michigan. Thanks to dedicated professionals like Tom Beyersdorf and Gerda Lipcaman, and the support of tremendously capable staff, Gift of Life is now an indispensable partner in the Eye-Bank’s mission to restore sight. Today, this relationship is the envy of eye banks and OPOs in other states. Similar partnerships have evolved with organizations like the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF), the result of extensive dedication on the part of Joan Bates and the rest of the MTF team.

Another kind of partnership has evolved with the Michigan Secretary of State office. Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has affirmed her commitment to eye, organ and tissue donation through her work with the state’s Donor Registry. Land’s direct collaboration with the Michigan Eye-Bank and Gift of Life has demonstrated that increasing the number of donors in Michigan is a major priority for her administration.

Of course, it would be impossible to promote eye donation and ensure the availability of transplantable eye tissue without the active involvement of hospitals that must that must refer potential eye donors to the Eye-Bank. Michigan is home to some of the most respected hospitals in the country, and the Eye-Bank is proud to have established highly effective working relationships with those facilities. The staff at Spectrum Health – Butterworth Hospital, for example, has demonstrated its commitment to sight restoration by working with the Eye-Bank to enable more eye tissue donations each year – for more than 25 years – than any other Michigan hospital.

The Michigan Eye-Bank’s efforts to promote eye donation are complemented by its commitment to clinical quality. Throughout its more than 50-year history, the Eye-Bank has earned the respect of its peers and the surgeons it serves by maintaining only the highest clinical standards. It is a tradition of excellence that began with Dr. John Henderson in 1957, and continues today through the guidance of Midwest Eye-Bank’s Medical Advisory Committee. The Committee is comprised of Midwest’s team of Medical Directors at all sites, and is chaired by Dr. Alan Sugar at the University of Michigan’s Kellogg Eye Center.

The Michigan Eye-Bank has also earned the respect of the communities it serves through the ongoing outreach efforts of Lions, who remain its most valuable advocates. Today, the Lions Advisory Council takes community outreach to the next level by using its members’ collective experience to guide the Eye-Bank’s outreach strategies.

By the spring of 2005, the Eye-Bank had outgrown the laboratory and office space it occupied on the sixth floor of the Kellogg Eye Center. It was time to look for a new location, and the Eye-Bank was on the verge of having its own building for the first time in its history. A capital campaign was launched and, just as they did in the 1985 campaign, the Lions of Michigan came through with a commitment to support the new endeavor. The Ann Arbor (Host) Lions Club named the new Michigan Eye-Bank laboratory in honor of the Eye-Bank’s founder and fellow club member, Dr. John Henderson.