Class of 1970 Commemorative Biographical Book

R I C H A R D M . ( D I C K ) K L E I N

Address: 133 Essex Drive, Tenafly, NJ 07670 Email: richardmklein@gmail.com ● Phone: H: 201-569-31891 ● C: 201-665-5762

Alma mater: Amherst College, B.A., 1966

Postgraduate Training/Certification: Internship: Cornell University, New York Hospital, 1970-71 Ophthalmology Residency: Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, 1971-74 Vitreoretinal Surgery Fellowship: Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital, 1974-1975 Board certification: Ophthalmology, 1976 Current Employment: Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 2015-present. Spouse or Partner’s Name: Ronnie Boriskin Klein, married 1970, retired professor, Fordham University, Department of Philosophy. Bioethicist at large regional hospital system. Name(s) of Children and Grandchildren: Michael (attorney, Columbia University, NY), Kathryn (pediatric ophthalmologist, NJ), Douglas (attorney, NY) Grandchildren: Javier, (12), Alexander (12), Alice, (8), Eloise (6) and Julia (1). My most memorable experience in medical school began on Tuesday, June 4, 1968. On that day I piled into a station wagon with classmates Roger Kula, Jack Iliff, and Steve Karas and drove overnight from Baltimore to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This trip was the unexpected culmination of an idea hatched in our pathology lab six months earlier. Our goal was to dissect a 40-foot-long baleen whale that had washed up on the beach of a deserted barrier island near Morehead City, NC. The overnight drive from Baltimore to Morehead City is seared into my memory because that was the night that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. As we drove through the night in Virginia and North Carolina, we listened to the radio as the details of that horrible event slowly emerged. The next morning, we took a small boat from the mainland to the deserted barrier island, slogged across a swamp carrying buckets of dissection equipment and formaldehyde, and emerged onto the ocean beach to confront our whale. Narrative: Most Memorable Experience in Medical School:

We obtained tissues from the heart, the eye, and other organs, as the ocean waves rocked the huge whale’s carcass. Jack Iliff, who was doing his pathology elective, ultimately presented this whale’s autopsy results at a Johns Hopkins pathology conference. The autopsy number was JHH-W-1. Highlights Since Graduating in 1970: I was fortunate to have started my training in ophthalmology at the time of a paradigm shift in the treatment of diseases of the vitreous and retina. I fell in love with the field. I learned and practiced vitreoretinal surgery at a time when exciting new developments were occurring virtually every day. After my training, I wrote a book about the burgeoning new field; that gave me an opportunity to get to know personally the pioneers in my field. Later, I was one of two founding partners of a vitreoretinal group practice in New Jersey that has now grown to 20 surgeons. I retired from that group in 2015 after 39 years. That same year I joined the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. My goal in my new position has been to teach residents about retinal diseases. A second highlight has been a project that Ronnie and I began in 2012. Each winter we take a small group of ophthalmologists from the U.S. to Burma (Myanmar), a very complex and beautiful country where the medical needs of the population are great, and the options for medical care are poor or nonexistent for most people. Our primary goal is to help establish a robust public health program for the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy (the leading cause of blindness in working age people). We originally worked with Burmese NGOs, but over the past few years we developed close working relationships with doctors at

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