President's Message

Photo courtesy of Manus C. Kraff, MD

Welcome to the Dr. Charles and Ann Kelman Family Foundation Web site. The purpose of the Foundation is to support creative innovation in ophthalmology, lung cancer research, the humanities and musical arts. I invite you to tour our Web site to learn more about who we are, what we do and, how you can participate.

Since our last update, we have been busy collaborating with WLIW21 New York Public TV on a documentary about the life of my husband, Dr. Charles D. Kelman, who is renowned for his development of Phacoemulsification. Today it's the most widely used procedure for cataract removal in the world and the inspiration of all small incision surgery.

I am excited to share that the one hour documentary, Through My Eyes: The Charlie Kelman Story about Charlie’ s life is airing on public television stations across the nation. Please check local listings or visit www.wliw.org/kelman for details and the opportunity to view the documentary online.

WLIW New York Public Television will broadcast the one hour prime time documentary on January 20, 2010 at 9:00pm. The documentary premiered at the American Academy of Ophthalmology 2009 meeting, in San Francisco and got an enthusiastic reception from the almost 1,000 ophthalmologists who attended.

Tune in to view Charlie's story of perseverance, determination, humor and drama. He was a visionary with passion for music and surgery, whose idea was designated as experimental and highly criticized but one that changed the course of medical history.

An educational version with an accompanying teacher's guide is presently in production. We hope it will excite Middle School students to look for heroes who make a difference in the quality of all our lives, beyond entertainers or sport personalities. We hope to inspire a future visionary.

Charlie loved a challenge and so do we. As this new Foundation grows, we plan to update the Web site to keep you informed of the challenges we take on and the progress we make.

We have reprinted Charlie’ s autobiography, “Through My Eyes” and it is available for purchase by writing to Diane Spiro at: dianes2020@aol.com.

We welcome your ideas and feedback.