\"Eye Tissue Preservation\" John Harry King, Jr Hand Signed FDC Dated 1952 For Sale
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\"Eye Tissue Preservation\" John Harry King, Jr Hand Signed FDC Dated 1952:
$499.99
Up for sale a RARE! "Eye Tissue Preservation" John Harry King, Jr Signed First Day Cover
ES-1957
A native of Washington, DC, Dr. King
attended Georgetown University and Georgetown Medical School, receiving a
degree in Medicine in 1933. After his residency, he served 20 years as an
ophthalmologist in the US Army, spending most of his peacetime active duty in
Hawaii and Washington. During World War II, he served both in Europe and the
Pacific. He retired in 1955 from his post as Chief of Ophthalmology at Walter
Reed Army Medical Center. He was a dynamo. His boundless energy and innovative
mind involved him in several careers simultaneously. He became a corneal
surgeon of international repute and conducted a very successful private
practice in Washington, DC after his retirement from the Army in 1955. While
serving in the Army's Ocular Research Unit at Walter Reed, he devised a process
for preserving eye tissue that involved dehydration and storage in glycerin in
vacuum tubes. The corneal tissue this process provided let to eye banking and
soon the banked corneas were being shipped throughout the world. Being the
humanitarian he was with teams of corneal surgeons, he organized repeated
expeditions to remote areas in the Pacific, Asia, South America, Central
America, Africa, and the Middle East. he quickly became known to most
ophthalmologists in these areas because his expertise and banked corneas were
the only hope for preventing blindness in a large percentage of their patients.
Dr. King founded and directed many professional organizations. First, he worked
with The Lions Club of the District of Columbia and founded the Washington Eye
Bank, then the Eye Bank Association of America, next the International Eye
Foundation for which he remained Medical Director from 1961 until shortly
before his death. IEF was his labor of love for he was at his best while
applying his charming and persuasive manner to attract government and private
funds to support a global organization. He utilized many ophthalmologists on
station in remote areas totally dedicated to preventing blindness. He was a
founding member of the Board of Care-Medico, the former medical arm of CARE. He
also founded and directed The Society of Military Ophthalmologists which is
still active today Despite all these many accomplishments, he wrote more than
100 scientific papers and 4 textbooks. His international stature is attested to
by his position as a Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem which
supports the St. John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. He was also a member of the
Knight of Malta. In 1982 he received the Distinguished Humanitarian Award
from the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology. He was the recipient of the
Frances J. Garner Memorial Award from the Lions District of the Washington Eye
Bank.
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