Dr. Don Getz was an incredible optometrist. Read this tribute to this wonderful individual.

1. Visual Performance Today 25 Volume 1 | Issue 2
In Remembrance: Dr. Don Getz
by Dominick M. Maino, OD, MEd • Illinois College of Optometry • Chicago, Illinois
Dr. Don Getz was an
individual once met, never
forgotten. He always made
an impression. He could be
in a heated discussion with
you one minute and make
you laugh the next. He could
be presenting a lecture in a
formal setting in the morning
and then hitting a tennis ball
on the court immediately after
his presentation. He loved
optometry. He loved life.
I first met Don as a student member
of COVD. This was in the late 1970’s,
when disco was king, and California was
recuperating from the 1960’s. Don was
the ultimate Californian.
My initial impression while a student
was of an individual who was indeed all
Californian.Heoftenworeadisco-inspired,
multi-colored, long-collared, unbuttoned
shirt and tennis shorts. He also displayed
a goodly amount of gold hanging around
his neck (which was the “in thing” to do at
the time) and, if memory serves, drove a
silver Mercedes. He obviously enjoyed life
and was doing well fiscally.
My second impression was of an
individual who enjoyed his work. He was
passionate about optometry and wasn’t
shy about telling you why. Pediatrics,
binocular vision, optometric
vision therapy, and his ability to
improve the lives of his patients
drove this passion.
As a student active in several
organizations, I noticed that
I saw him at many meetings
held by numerous optometric
organizations throughout the
year. He was usually lecturing on
a number of topics that included
strabismus, amblyopia, and
optometric vision therapy. My
third impression of Dr. Getz was of someone
who wanted to share what he knew and was
willing to take time out of his private office to
do just that.
I realized that when I grew up (opto­
metrically speaking that is), I wanted to
be just like Don (except for the disco shirt
thing!). I wanted to have his passion and love
of the profession. I wanted to go out among
the optometric masses and inform folks
about the various topics I was interested in
that could improve the lives of our patients. I
wanted to live life with a smile not only on my
face but in my heart.
Many others have shared with me their
remembrances of Don as well…
Dr. Len Press notes in his blog that: “I’m
pretty sure Dr. Getz was born in 1931, but

2. Visual Performance Today 26 Volume 1 | Issue 2
it doesn’t matter because
if there’s anyone who lived each
day as if it was his last, it was Don. I
first discovered Don as a student when
I was trying to figure out strabismus and
amblyopia, and his monograph opened
my eyes. One of Don’s favorite quotes,
when he lectured, was something that
he attributed to Henry David Thoreau:
“The flexibility of your adaptability is a
measure of your intelligence.” By any
measure, I have yet to meet anyone with
more intelligence. I never got around to
asking Don why he was so enamored
with Thoreau, but perhaps it’s because it
is said of Thoreau that he found great joy
in his daily life … Rest in peace, Don.”
Dr. Thomas Poswilko sent me a letter
and a photograph. He writes that “The
enclosed picture was taken in August
1978 at the home of Dr. Don Getz. I
was on an Illinois College of Optometry
externship program visiting his practice
Jerry Getman, Tom Poswilko, Don Getz.
and staying at his home. One evening he
invited Dr. Jerry Getman over for a three hour
bull session. They discussed Jerry’s powerful
use of the retinoscope and the functional
vision theories of Skeffington, Swartwout,
and Gesell, among others. It was incredibly
fascinating. It was because of that meeting
that I decided I had to pursue this area as
a career path. Don was a cherished advisor
to me for the next 30 years. His advice and
knowledge will never be forgotten.”
Dr. Margaret Ronis emailed these kind
words:
Years ago, I was program chair of the OEP
Northeast Congress of Optometry in Boston.
Our committee had Catherine (Cathy)
Kennedy, Kathy Prucnal, Cathy Stern, and
me. I had known Don for a few years already,
having lived in California for two years at the
beginning of my career. We invited Don to
be our major guest speaker. He and I were
Nancy Torgerson and Don Getz

3. Visual Performance Today 27 Volume 1 | Issue 2
having a discussion and
he called me “Cathy.” I looked
at him and said, “Don, my name is
Margaret.” He said, “I know that, but
I pulled a blank. I figured I had a pretty
good chance of getting it right by calling
you Cathy!”
Another time, he and Lynne came to
Boston for the AOA meeting soon after I
had moved back to Boston and had my
1st baby. I couldn’t go to the meeting,
but they invited me to meet them at lunch
time, just so that we could see each other.
And I remember seeing him and Lynne at
the KISS meetings in Washington.
It is hard to realize that he will no longer
be at any meetings I go to. I remember
his FILA jogging suits, his great smile and
sense of humor, his wacky glasses, and
his willingness to welcome ODs into his
office.
Dr. Stuart Rothman remembers Dr.
Getz with these well-chosen words:
“My first encounter with Don Getz
came at an AOA meeting in New Orleans
in 1978. He was wearing a tennis warm up
suit and was with some other optometrists
all dressed in either business casual or
in coats and ties. He was, of course, the
center of attention and had that constant
smile on his face. I introduced myself as
someone who would be coming to his
officeafewweekslatertodoanexternship.
At that time, Dr. Arnie Sherman taught us
our first optometric vision therapy course,
and Don would invite two SUNY students
out during our three-week break between 3rd
and 4th year. Don always thought Arnie was
sending him his two best students, but in my
year only Paul Harris and I volunteered. Don
graciously put us up in his home and would
transport us back and forth to his office. We
got to observe and help out Lora McGraw
and the other therapists in the therapy
room, observed Don and Dr. Gary Etting
doing evaluations, and spent time with the
front office staff learning how to run a vision
therapy office.
The experience was an eye opener. First,
was seeing the beautiful office space that
was so open and well designed for therapy
and was dramatically different from the
institutional therapy rooms at SUNY, or the
space-starved therapy rooms in most of
the practices I had seen on the East Coast.
Second, was the amazing staff that Don

4. Visual Performance Today 28 Volume 1 | Issue 2
had assembled, all friendly
and knowledgeable, creating
an unbelievably warm atmosphere.
Third, was the patient volume for
therapy. Patients were booked every
half hour for the entire day and there
were sometimes up to six patients at a
time depending on therapist availability.
To think, that some of our professors
at SUNY said that you couldn’t make a
living doing vision therapy. Fourth, was
Don himself-- getting to observe his love
of life and all of his interests. One day
he’d be playing tennis at his club. Another
day he’d be going to the Greek theater or
Hollywood Bowl for a concert. Another
night it would be dinner with friends or
attending a sporting event about which he
was passionate. He used to say proudly
that all of his money had come from
optometry and that it was optometry that
allowed him to have his lifestyle.
Paul and I both came back to SUNY to
start our fourth year as different people. I
was determined to go back to California
to practice after my fourth year, and when
the opportunity to join Don and Gary as an
associate came up, I jumped at it. I spent
two years in the practice as an associate
before leaving to return to the East Coast,
but during the time I was there, I couldn’t
have asked for a better experience or
have been treated any better. It was as an
associate in the practice that I really got
to experience the wonderful staff that Don
had put together.
Don would relish the opportunity to
interact with well-known behavioral ODs
from around the world who would make it a
point to stop in for a day, or even a few hours,
while they were in Los Angeles. He would
likewise visit other behavioral optometric
colleagues when he was traveling. He would
also welcome the opportunity to share his
life with externs from the many optometry
schools that would send students for a
quarter, a semester, or even a few weeks.
Like me, they would also get to be immersed
in Don’s world and go back to their schools
with a new found source of pride in our
profession.
Don loved sports, theater, good food,
nice cars, notoriety, travel, and his native
Los Angeles, and it was apparent to anyone
who interacted with him or followed his
schedule on a daily basis. His passion for
sports and for all of his local LA teams was
absolute. Although he tried to eat healthfully,
he couldn’t resist the latest sauce or newest
Back row, L to R: Robert Greenberg, Bob Sanet, Donald
Janiuk, Gary Williams, Neil Draisin, Gary Etting, Joseph
Viviano. Front row, L to R: James Blumenthal, Glen
Steele, Amorita Treganza, Joyce Adema, Donald Getz,
Steve Levin.

5. Visual Performance Today 29 Volume 1 | Issue 2
way of preparing some
dish. Anyone who knew Don in
those days would also recognize the
silver grey Mercedes with the EYES OK
license plate that invariably spent more
time in the repair shop than on the road.
Don also loved and had a passion for
his profession. His schedule was full of
time off for just about every optometric
meeting. He was a regular at the AOA,
COVD, Academy, Behavioral vision
seminars in northern and southern
California, the San Jose VT conference,
Anacortesconference,andtheSkeffington
Symposium, to name a few. Not only did
he attend these meetings, but he also
became involved in the organizations,
rising to the chair of the AOA Sports Vision
Section and the Presidency of COVD. His
involvement and passion for organized
optometry and these organizations in
general was also a model to those of us
that he mentored.
When you look at Don’s legacy,
you have to realize not only how many
optometrists’ lives he touched, but how
many patients’ lives he improved directly
or through the optometrists that he
mentored. I have been teaching students
and practicing for over 30 years. Paul
Harris has taught behavioral optometry
worldwide and is now teaching at the
Southern College of Optometry. Bob
Sanet, through his lectures and courses
on behavioral optometry, has also reached
many others on a worldwide scale. His
longtime partner Gary Etting, through
his articles, lectures, and professional
involvement, has also reached a worldwide
audience. Don’s daughters, Dana and Nina,
Lynne’s son Eric, and countless others have
been influenced by one of Don’s lectures,
his OEP papers, or tapes. The number of
lives that this man changed either directly or
indirectly is staggering.
I consider myself fortunate to have known
Don and to have been considered his friend.
What I will remember most about Don is the
smile that was always present on his face,
the twinkle in his eyes, which was sometimes
mischievous but always good natured, and
his infectious, unmistakable laugh. Don loved
a good joke. He was a frustrated comedian,
having lived out his fantasy at several LA
comedy clubs and of course at the COVD
meeting as MC. I recall one moment when
I had to stop at his house to either deliver
or pick up something. It was right before
the COVD meeting and I rang the bell and
knocked on the door. There was no answer
but the door was open, and so I walked in.
I heard Don’s voice but got no answer when
I called him. So, I kept walking closer to his
voice and found him in his bathroom, where
he was practicing his monologue in front of a
mirror. It was hard to make out what he was
saying, though, because all I could hear was
the sound of him laughing at his own jokes.
Of course, when he realized I was there, he
made me stay and listen to the whole thing
againandwewerebothabletolaughtogether.
We in optometry mourn Don’s loss. We have
lost his physical presence, but his spirit was
timeless and will always be with us.”

6. Visual Performance Today 30 Volume 1 | Issue 2
Dr. Bruce May relayed
this humorous story:
Dr. Don had done a great job
in presenting the three day Reading
Seminar in the Pocono Mountains
of Pennsylvania. It was tougher than
usual as he was suffering with some
severe back pain and spasms. Don had
introduced a good picture of the concepts
of visualization he had been developing
as part of his practice and he was rather
high on the prospects of this addition to
optometric vision therapy.
As was the tradition at the
time, we brought Dr. Getz
back to our home to have
him present a special seminar
for local school nurses the
following day. My daughter, a
college student and soon-to-
be full time vision therapist,
had attended the Reading
Seminar and fully enjoyed the
experience. However, as she
entered the living room she found Don
in the recliner fully laid back but, at that
moment, struggling to return to vertical.
As she approached to pass by Don
implored her for help as he could not get
up. With no pause as she breezed past
Lauren said, “Oh come on, Dr. Getz, just
visualize yourself standing in front of the
chair.” Can you believe she walked by
leaving the wordy one speechless?
Toni Bristol of Expansion Consultants,
Inc. says:
I met Don Getz in 1988. I was the
managing partner in another consulting
company. The consultant in our group
that was assigned to work with Don and
Dr. Gary Etting happened to have a child
who struggled with reading. The more
the consultant learned about vision and
learning, the more she felt this was what
was wrong with her child. And, indeed
it was! While I never learned the actual
diagnosis, I did hear that her son was
seeing double. After three months of VT
he was reading on his own
because he wanted to do so.
While I met a number of other
VT docs during this time, it was
this initial introduction to vision
therapy that motivated me to
help the doctors in this field,
and about a year later I started
my own consulting company.
Linda Sanet, COVT says:
In 1978 Don was one of the
Examiners for my COVT oral exam. I knew
him by his books and reputation, and I was
more than nervous - for many reasons -
being in the small room with him and the
other examiner. Don made me laugh and
relaxed and helped to draw out information
that he believed I had inside but was too
“frozen” to say out loud. Happily I passed.
That was only one of the many kind acts
directed at me by this wonderful man, who
was human, brilliant, and generous.
Don Getz and Harold Solan

7. Visual Performance Today 31 Volume 1 | Issue 2
Dr. Arnie Sherman stated:
Don Getz was one of my
optometric mentors, consultant,
advisor, devil’s advo­cate, humorist,
and friend. We met in the late 1960’s at
an OEP meeting and immediately had
a confrontation regarding anomalous
correspondence vs. anomalous pro­
jection. Little did I know that these
academic discussions would be the glue
for our friendship over four decades.
He influenced my decision (twisted my
arm) to run for Treasurer of COVD for two
terms when he served as President Elect
and President. Those meetings enabled
metoseeasavvyleaderinhisanalysisand
responses to many difficult optometric
decisions. We also had the opportunity
to be asked by AOA President Charles
McQuarrie to be on the committee that
founded the Sports Vision Section of the
AOA.
Don’s creativity for vision therapy
techniques was genius. Imagination is
more important than knowledge; he had
both. Just read his In Office Vision Therapy
andStrabismusTherapyManualco-written
with Bob Wold and Lara McGraw. He was
able to provide the clinical applications
to the theoretical framework of binocular
vision in his writings, seminars, and
lectures all over the world.
The flip side of Don was his thirst for
humor. Those who know him well always
cracked up watching him at shows with
pencil in hand writing down jokes. These
were often used at the COVD Awards
luncheonthatheemceed.Hewasentertaining
as well as controversial but never bland. He
was obviously loved as he continued his
shtick for more than thirty years. Being seated
at the dais was an honor, but you became
a bulls-eye target for his acerbic wit. Lynne
was often the loving recipient.
We spent time vacationing after most
of our meetings and three of my favorite
remembrances are:
1) Thesparkleofhiseyes,smileonhisface,
and laughter during the Disneyland and
Disneyworld ride “It’s a Small World”
(the little kid in him was huge).
2) The fear on his face when I tried to take
the wheel on our 52-mile trip to Hana
in Maui, Hawaii with our wives, that
was filled with hairpin turns, one lane
bridges, and missing guardrails (he
drove).
3) His incredulous stare when I told him we
were walking to SUNY Optometry for
his guest lectures from the Long Island
Railroad Station in 18° weather after we
dug my car out from a snowstorm two
hours earlier (he took a taxi).
Don left his footprints in the optometric
sands of time that will never be washed away.
We all miss him.
Dr. Gary Etting in his eulogy noted that:
In 1978, on a nationally syndicated
primetime CBS radio show, when asked
if it was criminal for an ophthalmologist
to perform eye muscle surgery when the

8. Visual Performance Today 32 Volume 1 | Issue 2
success rate was so much
lower than with vision therapy,
he said ”yes.” His bound chapters
on strabismus and amblyopia are
considered classics. Whenever he
accepted speaking engagements it
was because they were on the way to
the Caribbean, even when they were
scheduled in Minneapolis. He was
the subject of more TV appearances,
radio interviews, and newspaper and
magazine articles than almost any other
optometrist. He was a self-proclaimed
expert and lecturer on nutrition who ate
all his meals in restaurants. He dressed
up as Spiderman on Halloween for
his patients. He regularly attended the
Skeffington symposium in DC and loved
to debate the esteemed attendees just
because he could. He was one of the most
interesting and famous optometrists in
the world.
Don Getz opened his private practice
cold in Sylmar, California in a medical
building with just his name on the door.
In the late 1950’s, the number of ODs in
professional buildings was almost nil.
There was no Medicare, no VSP, and no
other vision plans. Several years later,
inspired by the late Bill Ludlam’s lecture
on strabismus and having a daughter
with acquired strabismus, Don decided
to help her and in the process became
an authority on the subject of strabismus.
Asalecturerhewasbrash,charismatic,
funny,andsometimespoliticallyincorrect,
but his strength was in convincing his
audi­ences that vision therapy, especially for
strabismus, was something they could do.
Don was a founding father of COVD and
the Sports Vision Section of the AOA. He
was also a Fellow of the American Academy
of Optometry, a COVD President, and
education director, as well as the awards
banquet emcee for over 25 years. He
championed certification for COVTs, was
a recipient of both the Skeffington and GN
Getman awards, a Distinguished Practitioner
of the National Academies of Practice, and
so much more.
Don would close his lectures with this
famous quote from Henry Thoreau: “The
adaptability of your flexibility is a true
measure of your intelligence.” His life is a
living tribute to the meaning of this quote.
Dr. Don Getz will be missed. But he is
really not gone. He lives in the hearts of every
optometry student, resident, colleague, and
patient he has touched. By reaching out to
others, he has touched multitudes. He is past,
present, and future. Don is with us, smiling.
Gary Etting and Don Getz