Iowa Eye Association News Sept, 2002. Series 2, no. 37.

University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences

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William E. Scott, MD, Emeritus Professor

William E. Scott, MD, former vice-chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and service director for the Pediatric Ophthalmology & Adult Strabismus Service, has been named Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology. His retirement follows thirty-one years of serving patients and educating pediatric ophthalmologists.
Dr. Scott was born and raised in Iowa City. As an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, he was a member of the Hawkeye football team representing the University in the Rose Bowl in 1957 and 1959 (the Hawks won both games). He earned his baccalaureate degree in 1959, and a master’s in physiology in 1962. Scott graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1964. He did an internship at Wayne State General Hospital in Detroit and then returned to the University of Iowa for his ophthalmology residency. He did fellowships in pediatric ophthalmology at Smith-Kettlewell Institute for the Visual Sciences in San Francisco with Dr. Arthur Jampolsky, and Children’s Hospital National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., with Dr. Marshall Parks. He joined the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Medicine’s Department of Ophthalmology in 1971.
As a member of the faculty of the University of Iowa College of Medicine, Dr. Scott has made significant clinical, educational and research contributions. He is a prolific writer in the fields of strabismus, neuromuscular physiology of the extraocular muscles, and acquired and congenital abnormalities of eye movements. He is a founding member of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus. Dr. Scott emphasized the importance of combining clinical care and education with his research, treating many children while simultaneously training the pediatric ophthalmologists of tomorrow. He served many years as the service director for the University of Iowa Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus Service and has been involved in the training of over 50 fellows in pediatric ophthalmology & strabismus.
Dr. Scott’s many awards and recognitions include the American Academy of Ophthalmology Distinguished Service Award, the American Academy of Ophthalmology Honor Award, the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus Senior Honor Award, and the Joint Commission on Allied Health Personnel in Ophthalmology Faculty Award for Distinguished Service. He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He has been listed in “The Best Doctors in America” database (Woodward/White) and as one of the “Country’s Top Doctors” (Castle Connolly Publications). He has also delivered the American Orthoptic Council’s Richard G. Scobee Memorial Lecture, the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology & Strabismus’ Costenbader Lecture, and the Iowa Eye Association’s Alson E. Braley Lecture.
In 2001, he was honored with the creation of an endowed chair that bears his name. The chair was established with an anonymous gift of $1.6 million. On June 13-15, 2002, The Iowa Eye Association Annual Meeting honored Dr. Scott. The three-day pediatric ophthalmology symposium had a record-setting attendance.

Dr. Rick Olson, Dr. Bill Scott and Dr. Ron Keech, with orthoptists, Wanda Pfeifer and Pam Kutschke