Dr. Keates ‘was the real deal’

Richard H. Keates, M.D., 77, died of an embolism Jan. 26 at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The Ophthalmic Laser Surgical Society is a multi-disciplinary group that meets twice per year to learn of new developments in our field in a collegial atmosphere. At this meeting, Dick Keates and I sat next to each other on Thursday evening, Jan. 21, 2010.
He told me that he had just driven to New York City from Philadelphia and how much he enjoyed living there. We talked enthusiastically about his current consulting projects and that he was serving as medical monitor to a major ophthalmic company.
We talked about old friends and old times and thought it would be a great idea to have a reunion of our colleagues who were instrumental in making cataract/intraocular lens (IOL) surgery and refractive surgery the specialties they are today. He was so animated in describing his activities and his future aspirations that I was shocked to learn of his passing just a few days later.
Dick was a key player in the academic, educational and business aspects of our profession. He was a corneal specialist, who very early on embraced the emerging field of IOL implantation.
He published more than 100 articles and wrote or co-wrote six medical books. Among these publications, he wrote one of the important papers describing the uveitis-glaucoma-hyphema syndrome. He was also the co-author of Manual of Diseases of the Cornea, a popular textbook in the field.
Dick was a professor of ophthalmology at The Ohio State University Medical Center (Columbus) for 24 years before moving west to California in 1990. At the University of California, Irvine’s Department of Ophthalmology, Dick assumed a professorship and the chairmanship.
In 1996, he moved to Bucks County, Pa., to be near family, and for a decade he commuted to New York City, where he was a professor of ophthalmology at New York Medical College.
From 2007 to 2009, he returned to Ohio State where he was a professor emeritus.
As a student, Dick completed an internship at Albert Einstein Medical Center (Philadelphia) and did residencies at the Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital (New York) and Harvard Medical School (Boston). He was awarded fellowships to study corneal surgery in London and New York.
He made numerous contributions to our knowledge of corneal disease, refractive surgery and intraocular lens implantation.
It was a pleasure to have known Dick Keates. He was the real deal.
Ophthalmology has lost a notable figure and to many of us who knew him, we have lost a good friend.