DR. VIRGINIA LUBKIN: An Oculoplastic Surgeon for all Seasons
Category: SASOPRS Article Blogs
Feb
25
DR. VIRGINIA LUBKIN: An Oculoplastic Surgeon for all Seasons
By Perry Garber
Any tribute to women in Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery must start with Dr. Virginia Lubkin. Dr. Lubkin was one of two women to be a charter member of ASOPRS. She was truly a woman physician for all seasons, attending medical school when women in medicine were scarce and practicing Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery before Oculoplastics was a specialty.
Virginia Leila Lubkin was born in New York City on October 26, 1914. She attended New York University, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 1933 and graduating AOA from Columbia Physicians and Surgeons Medical School in 1937. After her internship, she completed her ophthalmology training at multiple hospitals in New York in the early 1940s, followed by ophthalmic plastic surgery training with Dr. Wendell Hughes.
While she was a resident at Mount Sinai Hospital, an attending told her, “You will open the field of Ophthalmology to American women.”
Dr. Lubkin was in private practice and on the staff of Columbia Physicians and Surgeons and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary (NYEEI) from 1945 to 1990. In 1978, she founded the Aborn Center for Eye Research at the NYEEI, which was renamed the Aborn-Lubkin Eye Research Lab in 2004 in her honor.
Dr. Lubkin was a clinician, teacher, and researcher with numerous eclectic interests. In 1959, she published a paper with Dr Hughes introducing a fornix conformer. Her interest in history and archeology led to an article summarizing the history of Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery from 3000 BC to 1000 AD. Her intense curiosity led her to numerous research projects in Ophthalmology and Ophthalmic Plastic Surgery, which was the reason she established the Aborn Center for Eye Research.
During my Oculoplastics Fellowship in 1975-76 and my subsequent years as an attending at NYEEI, Dr. Lubkin was always ready to teach and shared what she had learned and experienced in her many years of practice with the residents and fellows. At the time, she was involved in research regarding dry eyes and frequently discussed her work.
Dr. Lubkin was active nationally and internationally. She was active in the American Academy of Ophthalmology, teaching a course in “Complications of Blepharoplasty” during the 1980’s. Internationally, she lectured in many countries. Her energy and interests went well beyond Ophthalmology, encompassing history and archeology as noted above. She was also on the Board of Directors of The Jewish Guild for the Blind in NYC.
Virginia was a very upbeat person, getting involved in everything around her and ahead of her time. For her generation, it was unusual that she kept her maiden name, never changing it to her married name. And she effectively balanced a challenging professional career with a full family life. I remember her at many spring meetings, passing me on hikes, frequently with her husband, affectionately referred to as “Marty.”
When Virginia Lubkin died on May 5, 2004, her family consisted of her husband, four children, 12 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. She certainly led a prolific, energetic life, breaking barriers and being a role model for women in medicine. She played an important and integral role in the founding of our subspecialty.
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