Melvin Rubin, former AAO president, dies

Gainesville, FL-Melvin L. Rubin, MD, a former president of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), died Sunday, Feb. 23 at his home at the age of 81.

Dr. Rubin graduated from the University of California-Berkeley School of Optometry in 1953. In 1957, he received his medical degree from the University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine, and in 1961, completed his residency training in ophthalmology and a master’s degree in physiology at the University of Iowa.

He served 2 years as the executive secretary of the Vision Research Training Committee at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Rubin was also a member of the ophthalmology faculty at the University of Florida College of Medicine from 1963 to 1995, when-after 17 years as chairman-he stepped down, continuing to hold the Richardson Eminent Scholar Chair.

He became professor emeritus in 1997.

Dr. Rubin’s clinical areas of interest were retinal diseases, optics, and refractions. A clinician investigator and administrator, he created and established the annual Ophthalmic Knowledge Assessment Program. He also lectured extensively, presenting over 20 named lectures, and wrote more than 100 scientific publications as well as seven textbooks, one of which won an “AMMY” from the American Medical Writers Association as the best medical book of the year.

Throughout his career, Dr. Rubin received many national honors, and the Florida Society of Ophthalmology named an annual lectureship for him.

In addition to president, he has also served on the board of directors for the AAO, and later served as president of the foundation of the AAO.

Dr. Rubin also served as chairman of the American Board of Ophthalmology and on The Council of the American Ophthalmological Society.

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