Frederick
C. Cordes Eye Society - Alumni
Society of the Department of Ophthalmology, UCSF
General Information
Welcome to the webpage of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society. This
organization was formed to foster and encourage active participation
by alumni in the teaching programs of the Department of Ophthalmology
of the University of California, San Francisco. Please see our History,
below:
Alumni are encouraged to participate in the Annual Scientific Meeting.
The Society annually puts on a high quality, non-biased program for
the continuing education of the community practicing ophthalmologists,
Alumni, residents and academic staff. Traditionally, we try to hold
the meetings in early April. The scope and content of the program
is varied from year. Our programs always include the latest information
on glaucoma, retina, cataract and plastics and we occasionally have
Basic Science speakers selected by our Vice President/Program Coordinator.
The Cordes Society’s program is unique in that it always has
three “named” lectures each year: The Hogan Lecture,
The Williams Lecture, and the Hearst Lecture. This program qualifies
for AMA Category 1 credits. Please see our Meetings, below.
Please contact our past president, Dr. Robert D. Stone with questions
or comments by emailing him at rstone@cmc.net .
The documents and pictures of these WebPages print best if you format
your printer
for “landscape”.
Meetings
2008:
-Cordes
Reunion Classes
-Call
For Papers
-2008
SCIENTIFIC MEETING PROGRAM
-Cordes
Society Reception, AAO, Atlanta- November 9, 2008
2009:
-Cordes
Society Reception, AAO, San Francisco, Saturday, October 24, 2009
-2009
Cordes
Society Member Letter
-2009
Cordes
Cordes PROGRAM Final
-Cordes Society 50th Anniversary Meeting Call for Papers
2010:
Thursday, March 11, 2010, Alexander
R. Irvine, MD, Residents' Day
Toland Hall on the first floor of UC Hall
533 Parnassus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94143
Friday, March 12, 2010, Annual Scientific Meeting
Robertson Auditorium in the Mission Bay Conference Center
1675 Owens Street
San Francisco, CA 94158
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History
In the winter of 1948, as the Medical School community (and America)
was coming back to normal after the end of World War II, Dr. Michael
J. Hogan sent out an inquiry to former residents about having a reunion
of the U.C. Eye Residents. The
handwritten rough draft of his letter survives (Fig. 1 and Fig.
2). Carbon copies of the final draft have been found and date
the beginnings of Dr. Hogan’s ideas to February
16, 1948 (Fig.
3).
Having received many favorable responses to his initial
proposal, Dr. Hogan (a.k.a. “Uncle Mike”) drafted a formal
letter to all of the known residents of the U.C. Medical School program
(rough draft handwritten notes are seen on Fig.
4 and Fig.
5 along
with a list of residents). He worked from a partially handwritten
list of the then known U.C. residents (Fig.
6 and Fig.
7).
His final draft was typewritten on August 17, 1948 (no word
processors!) and we do not have an original, but, some carbon copies
of his original
invitations still survive, one of which is reproduced here (Fig.
8).
Of course, we all must remember that U.C.S.F. medical center
was not a “campus” of the University of California at
that time, it was governed by a Provost, and considered a division
of
U.C. Berkeley. The Berkeley campus conferred any undergraduate
degrees at that time.
That original meeting of the University of California
Eye Residents Association was held as scheduled, on September 11,
1948, and was
considered a great success. In succeeding years, the process for
holding the meeting and the resident responsibilities for organizing
the meeting became more refined. For example, in 1953, when second
year resident Vernon Lightfoot, M.D. was the resident in charge
of getting the meeting together, his letter was a simple, mimeographed,
form letter that allowed for easy responding by potential attendees
such as Dr. Harrington (Fig.
9). By the time Dr. Mullen was responding for the meeting,
it had boiled down to returning a simple postcard for reserving
your attendance (Fig.
10 and Fig.
11).
By the mid-1950s the rosters of the University of California
Eye Residents looked like the one reproduced in Fig. 12, 13, 14.
Over
the years after Dr. Hogan started the meetings in 1948, Dr. Cordes’ role in this meeting for the residents became of
more importance, not only because of his faithful attendance, but
also because he would later consistently arrange for the banquets
to be held at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, among other things.
When Dr. Cordes retired as Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology,
in 1959, members felt that the University of California Residents
Association should be renamed in his honor because he had trained
or was chairman during the training of all of the known graduates
of the program at that time. He was, also, the first chairman of
the “Department” of Ophthalmology. Previously, Ophthalmology
had been known as a “Division” in the Department of
Surgery of the School of Medicine. Since 1959, therefore, this
organization has been known as the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society.
(also see Historical References).
In 1999,
we celebrated the 40th reunion of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society
(see Scrapbook Images).
The actual 50th anniversary of the University of California Eye Residents
Association
occurred in
1998.
Therefore, historically, the upcoming 2008 meeting will actually
be the 60th reunion of the University of California Residents Association.
In 2009, the annual meeting will be the official 50th reunion of
the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society.
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