Seeing the Way, Hearing the Call

After a meteoric rise as administrator, alumnus Richard Parrish, MD'76, most values teaching, his roots and family life.

Teaching is said to be a noble calling and ophthalmologist Richard Parrish, MD '76, heard the call. Becoming an ophthalmologist was a natural. His father Richard K. Parrish, MD '41, also was an ophthalmologist. Becoming a teacher was inborn.

A native Hoosier, Dr. Parrish is riding the fast track to success. By age thirty-one, he had completed two glaucoma fellowships at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, had presented research findings at various national and international ophthalmic meetings, was serving on the editorial board of a major ophthalmologic journal and had been invited to practice at two prestigious medical centers. He chose Bascom Palmer, in part because he also would serve as an educator in the residents' training program. That was in 1982.

Following the traditional academic track, he was assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and staff surgeon in the Section of Ophthalmology, Department of Surgery at the VA Medical Center. He became associate professor seven years later and full professor two years after that. In 1993 he was named director of the ophthalmology residency training program. At forty-four, Dr. Parrish was named chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Miami School of Medicine, the youngest chairman ever of the department.

But just as teaching first compelled Dr. Parrish to choose Bascom Palmer, it also drew him to step down from his post as chairman in 1999 to spend more time educating the next generation of ophthalmologists.

Bascom Palmer is internationally known for its research, clinical care and teaching. Dr. Parrish points with pride to 1999 rankings in Ophthalmology Times' annual survey: firsts in patient care and residency programs, fifth in research. "Teaching is linking the past with the future," he says. "It is joining with those you train to gain new knowledge to improve patient care. I have a passion for sharing the knowledge that exists in the field of ophthalmology. I realized I could do more without the responsibilities of administrative functions."

In addition to training Bascom Palmer residents and fellows, Dr. Parrish is interested in continuing medical education and extending that service to Central and South American physicians. He has published Cirugia de Glaucoma, the first glaucoma surgical atlas written expressly for Spanish-speaking clinicians, which he co-authored with Fabian Lerner, MD, of the University of Buenos Aires. His most ambitious undertaking was the creation and editing of The University of Miami - Bascom Palmer Eye Institute Atlas of Ophthalmology, a 678-page atlas with more than 1,200 images and 102 collaborating authors. The atlas is to be translated into Spanish, German, French and Italian later this year. It already is available on CD-ROM.

Along research lines, he serves as vice-chairman of the Ocular Hypertension Study, a multi-center prospective clinical trial, and is director of the Optic Disc Reading Center at Bascom Palmer.

"Patient care, research and education are inseparable at a university medical school," he says. "You can't advance patient care without research, and you can't promote research without education."

Most important, however, he notes that he now also has more time for his family. He and his wife Marianne have three children: Andy, a freshman at Villanova University; Felipe, a high school freshman; and Deanna, who will be ten in May.

Most of his recreational activities center around his family, but he does have one other love - gardening. He and Marianne live on one acre in an unincorporated area of Dade County that formerly was an avocado farm. Now it is the Parrishes' little bit of paradise. The avocados, oranges, mangoes, coconuts, grapefruit and vegetables they grow in their yard are liberally interplanted with flowers. Planting 300 impatiens at a time is not unusual for him.

His dedication to family, work and hobbies has Hoosier roots, and he clings to the lessons learned as a child in his hometown of Decatur, Indiana.

"The work ethic demonstrated by everyone from the school principal to the grain elevator operator was constant: work hard, treat others with respect and kindness, tell the truth and understand the difference between what is really important in life - like family and friends - and the momentary distractions that fill our lives. Be humble in what you know and ask others to be forgiving of what you don't know. These fundamental tenets of human behavior are the ones I have tried to carry into my personal and professional life."