Featuring Drs. Arthur, Daniel, and Jamie Lea Schaefer were inducted into ASOPRS in 1973, 1989, and 2020, respectively, and two Past Presidents of ASOPRS, Arthur in 1988 and Daniel in 2019.

Dr. Arthur Schaefer was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1923, the son of an Optician and professional musician.  He helped pay his way through Canisius College by working as a lab instructor, a shoe salesman at Sears, and a pianist in a band.  Before Frank Sinatra became famous, he asked them to perform a song or two with his band, but since he was unknown to them, they did not know if he could sing, and he was not from Buffalo, so his request was denied.  Art graduated from SUNY at Buffalo Medical School in 1947.  He completed his Residency in Ophthalmology at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital, now Erie County Medical Center (ECMC).  He did his informal fellowship with Dr Bryon Smith, where every several months, he would fly to NYC to spend the day in surgery picking Byron’s brain and again while dining with him that evening.

In postwar Korea, he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps and as Chief of Ophthalmology at the 121st Evac Hospital, where he worked with and taught the Korean army’s chief eye surgeon, among others.  He was then transferred to Japan, where he was appointed Chief of Ophthalmology at the 8169^th Hospital in Zama, Far Eastern Army Headquarters, where he also taught the Japanese Ophthalmic Surgeons.
 

Art established Buffalo’s first Oculoplastic Surgery Clinic in the early 1960s. 

He was a clinical professor of ophthalmology and a clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He was also a consultant at several hospitals in the area and served as director of ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgery at ECMC and the Buffalo General Hospital.

In 1995, he was the 22nd individual and first Buffalonian to receive UB’s Lucian Howe Award and medal for his contributions to ophthalmology.

He was a Canisius college regent and, with Betty, his wife, established a Scholarship Fund at the college to assist pre-med students.

Art and Betty were recipients of the Knight and Lady of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.  In 1994 they were awarded Christ the King Seminary’s Cure of Ars Award for “faith-filled and dedicated service to others.”

He received many other awards and honors for his volunteer involvement from his alma mater, high school, college, medical school, religious organizations, and hospitals.  

Dr. Daniel P. Schaefer is a native of Buffalo, New York.  He graduated from Canisius College with a B.A. in Biology and received his Doctor of Medicine degree from SUNY at Buffalo in 1981.  After serving his internship in Internal Medicine at the University Program, SUNY at Buffalo Affiliated Hospitals in 1982, he completed his residency training in ophthalmology at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1985. He was elected and served as Chief Resident from 1984 to 1985.  An American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (ASOPRS) sponsored a fellowship training program in Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery, which was completed at the Wills Eye Hospital and Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA. 1985 to 1986 under the preceptorship of Dr. Joseph C. Flanagan.

Dr Schaefer joined the Department of Ophthalmology, SUNY at Buffalo, New York, in 1986 and was promoted to Clinical Professor in 2001. He was appointed Co-Director of the Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery department in 1989 and promoted to Director from 1997 to 2022 while maintaining a private practice in Buffalo, New York. He has served as the Chief of Ophthalmology at St. Joseph Intercommunity Hospital for over 20 years and served as its President of the Medical Staff from 2001 to 2003.

Dr. Schaefer has served as Visiting Professor and lectured throughout the United States, Central America, South America, Africa, and India, has written numerous chapters and articles in the field of Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery, and has traveled frequently to several countries in Central America, South America, Africa and India, lecturing, providing medical services and surgeries in the field of Oculoplastic, Orbital, and Reconstructive Surgery for those in need, while also teaching the local Ophthalmologists.

Dr. Schaefer was a member of the ASOPRS Education Committee 1991 to 2002, and its Chair 2000 to 2002, and CME Committee 1991 to 1998 and its Chair 1994 to 1998, Chair of the Committee for Transition of ASOPRS to Board Certification/Equivalency 2002 to 2009, was on the ASOPRS Foundation Board, President of the ASOPRS 2019, President of the Upstate New York District #1 American College of Surgeons and has served on its Committee for Membership Applicants since 1996 for 25 years, has been on the Medical Advisory Board of the American Society of Ocularists  1992 to 2009, was elected Chief Resident at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1984 to 1985, received the SUNY at Buffalo, New York Ophthalmology Resident Teaching Award five times, was presented the 4^th Kanchan Memorial Oration Award from the Kanchan Eye Hospital and Research Center, Murlidhar, Hyderabad, India in 1994, Recipient of the Signum Fidei Award from St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and inducted into the Society in 1999, Marlene and he were Bestowed Knighthood in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in 2001 and advance to its highest order of Knight of the Grand Cross in 2011, received the Caritas Award from St. Joseph Intercommunity Hospital in 2002, received the Lifelong Education for Ophthalmologist Continuing Education Recognition Award and Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, and inducted into The American Ophthalmological Society in 2008.

He was also very honored that his father had the pleasure of inducting him into the society when Art was President of the ASOPRS and presenting the ASOPRS diploma to him at the Business Meeting in Las Vegas on 10/7/88.  I just missed that honor with my daughter during my Presidency of ASOPRS in 2019.  My daughter, Dr. Jamie Lea Schaefer, finished her ASOPRS-approved Fellowship on 6/30/19.  She was the first and only third-generation ASOPRS member in 2020.

Dr. Schaefer is married to Marlene Ann Schaefer, and they have three daughters, Dawn Marie, Jamie Lea, and Alyce Daniela. They enjoy flying single-engine airplanes and motorcycles, scuba diving, snorkeling, traveling, sports, and music.  

JAMIE LEA SCHAEFER, M.D. 

One of my earliest memories in Oculoplastics was running, in terror, up and down my father and grandfather’s office hallways, trying to escape my grandmother; she was the third person trying to place eyedrops in my eyes that afternoon. Since then, my experiences have been much more enjoyable.

Helping to organize slides into the carousel projectors for either a resident lecture or a lecture at a national meeting was the usual as a child in the Schaefer household. It piqued my interest in Oculoplastics at an early age. Seeing photographs of patients going through a trying time, followed by the results of the efforts of my father and grandfather, was just astonishing to me - I aspired to do something that could truly impact a person’s life that much.  Another commonplace occurrence was those TV remote battles occurring on Saturdays because I wanted to watch cartoons. However, this new surgical technique had just come out, and my father received the VHS tape of it in the mail; fast-forward --he usually won.

During college, knowing I had a strong interest in medicine, I started working as a nurse’s assistant at the same hospital ED where both my parents and my grandparents had worked. Looking just like my mother, I was always stopped in the hallway for a quick conversation that led to such positive stories of how my family had impacted someone’s life or how they enjoyed watching my parents dance the night away at the hospital fundraiser.  

During medical school at St. George’s University, I completely fell in love with Oculoplastics. I joined an ophthalmology mission trip and was placed in the Oculoplastics operating room as a surgical technician and circulator. I saw firsthand the plethora of diagnoses and procedures, each one unique and tailored to the patient’s own anatomy. Then, with Dr. Robert Della Rocca, my grandfather’s colleague and father’s teacher, I performed a chalazion excision under his guidance and was hooked.

In residency at the University at Buffalo, I finally made it into the operating room with my father, and we have been discussing cases ever since. Unsurprisingly, he listened to the same music (Rush or symphonies) in the OR at home and took just as meticulous care of those patients as I had seen at home in those slides years ago.

I have been very fortunate to have other mentors who have become like family to me, influencing myself and my career, including from my time in fellowship at West Virginia University with Dr. Jennifer Sivak-Callcott, Dr. John Nguyen, Dr. John Linberg, Dr. Bradley Thuro, Dr. Ira Vidor, and then in my position at Brown University with Dr. Michael Migliori, Dr. Yoash Enzer, Dr. R. Jeffrey Hofmann, and Dr. Philip Rizzuto. The wonderful thing I have found about ASOPRS is that it really is a community and collaboration, taking in each other’s experiences and always searching for increased knowledge and advancement.

Now that I am back in Buffalo, NY, I have also returned to the same hospital where my parents met. I am in the same operating room that my father and grandfather would operate in together with my grandmother as their scrub tech and with the same nurses who tell me their first time in the OR was with them. Not only have I been told the intimate details of their interactions, but I have also been told my favorite procedure is the same as my grandfather's, the levator advancement.

I have forged my own pathway to find Oculoplastics and to support the Buffalo community. I am now serving as the Chief of Oculofacial and Plastic Surgery at the Buffalo V.A. and the Ross Eye Institute, University at Buffalo, and as the Chair of the ASOPRS Accreditation Committee. I am now bringing my own daughter into the office and will try to have the same positive early influence on the wonders and excitement of our field. 

 BACK to Newsletter