Dr. Ronald Smith, former AAO president, dies

Los Angeles-Ronald Smith, MD, former president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), died earlier this month in Los Angeles.

Dr. Smith, an academic ophthalmologist, was a member of the faculty at the Doheny Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology at the Keck-USC School of Medicine for nearly 40 years.

He served as medical director of the Doheny Eye Institute until his death.

A 1967 graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, he completed his ophthalmology residency at the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins, as well as a fellowship in uveitis, cornea, and external eye disease at the Proctor Foundation at University of California-San Francisco.

Dr. Smith returned to Wilmer as chief resident, followed by 2 years in the U.S. Public Health Service as an ophthalmologist for the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.

In addition to his presidency of the AAO, Dr. Smith served for more than 10 years on the Academy board of trustees. He was also past chairman and board member of the American Board of Ophthalmology, as well as past vice-chairman for the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

Dr. Smith was also a member of the board of trustees of the Braille Institute of American, which awarded him the Light Award. Additionally, he was awarded the Gold Medal of the International Uveitis Study Group, along with the Castroviejo Medal of the Cornea Society and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the AOO.

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