SCO is saddened to note the passing of one of the college’s most distinguished alumni, James A. “Jim” Boucher, OD ’61. A former SCO Board of Trustees member and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Dr. Boucher passed away on September 20, 2020.
A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University, he decided on optometry as a career after looking through career books in his university’s library. Following his graduation from SCO in 1961, he served in the U.S. Air Force as an Optometry Officer.
In 1966, he founded Snowy Range Vision Center in Laramie, Wyoming and practiced for 50 years. He served as president of the Wyoming Optometric Association, on the American Optometric Association Board of Trustees, and was named the AOA’s OD of the Year in 1978. A founder of the National Academy of Practice in Optometry, he received two honorary degrees, including one from SCO in 2004.
Dr. Boucher supported a number of causes, including support for his beloved state of Wyoming, where he served a term in the state legislature in the 1970s. Dr. Boucher established an endowed scholarship at SCO to support optometry students from Wyoming.