Director of Publications

New Scholarship Fund Endowed To Honor Long-time

Southern College of Optometry Faculty Members

Memphis, Tennessee (October 9, 2007) – Two long-time Southern College of Optometry (SCO) faculty members and leaders in pediatric optometry and vision therapy have been formally recognized with the establishment of a new scholarship in their honor.

The Glen T. Steele, OD, and L. Allen Fors, OD, Developmental Vision Endowed Scholarship Fund will assist deserving SCO students for academic success and a commitment to pediatrics and vision therapy in optometry.

Drs. Steele and Fors, both 1969 graduates of Southern College of Optometry, are currently the longest-serving members of the SCO faculty; both hold the rank of professor.

Both faculty members are regarded as leaders of their field. In the 1970s, Dr. Fors helped establish Student Volunteers in Optometric Service to Humanity (SVOSH) at SCO. Dr. Steele has been instrumental in the creation of the InfantSEE™ program and frequently lectures on children’s vision at the national and international levels.

After their graduation from SCO, both also completed fellowships at the prestigious Gesell Institute, a fact that Dr. Steele noted in his remarks when news of the new scholarship was first shared with him.

“Dr. Fors and I came to school together,” he noted. “We rode back and forth to the Gesell Institute. We’ve seen a lot of changes and worked together for many years, so we’re very honored to share a scholarship that bears our names.”

SCO President Richard Phillips noted the importance that the new scholarship will play in the education of SCO’s students. More than a third of SCO’s students will have received a scholarship by graduation, a rate that SCO hopes to increase.

“These doctors embody dedication,” Dr. Phillips remarked. “I salute them and everyone who worked to make this new scholarship a reality.”

SCO’s Pediatrics and Vision Therapy faculty members, led by Drs. W.C. Maples and Marc Taub, worked to create the new scholarship. Scholarship recipients will be required to maintain an overall grade point average of 3.25 in both their overall studies and courses in pediatrics and vision therapy, as well as submitting an essay on how recipients plan to incorporate pediatrics and vision therapy in their practices after graduation.

Friends, colleagues and supporters of pediatric or vision therapy optometry may contribute to the Glen T. Steele, OD, and L. Allen Fors, OD, Developmental Vision Endowed Scholarship. For more information about supporting this worthwhile scholarship fund, please contact SCO’s Office of Institutional Advancement at (901) 722-3216.

Celebrating its 75^th anniversary in 2007, Southern College of Optometry was established in Memphis, Tennessee in 1932. SCO is an independent, not-for-profit institution of higher education with a mission to educate men and women in the art and science of optometry.

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