Dr John Martin Wheeler (1879-1938)

John Martin Wheeler, MD, became the first Director of the newly opened Eye Institute in 1933, having moved to the Presbyterian Medical Center from New York Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1928.

In 1936, he donated his extensive private library to the Eye Institute, which became the basis for the Wheeler Collection of Rare Books and Artifacts which is now housed here, on the 18^th floor of Presbyterian Hospital.

John M. Wheeler was born November 10,1879 in Burlington, VT. His father, who had served in the Civil War, was a lawyer, and superintendent of the Burlington Public Schools for 33 years. Wheeler earned a BA from the University of Vermont in 1902, followed by an MD in 1905, and a Master of Science in 1906, both also from the University.  He remained at UVM in 1907 as an instructor in Anatomy, before leaving for New York to become an intern at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. He joined the private practice of ophthalmologist Dr Dwight Hunter in 1909 and remained there until 1917. In 1918, he entered the Army Medical Corps as a Captain at Ft McHenry, Maryland. His patients were mostly soldiers who had been wounded in the war in France, and his interest is oculoplastics grew from that experience. It was while in the Army that he met Dr John Dunnington. Dunnington had just finished training at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, and would subsequently join Wheeler in private practice, and later, at the Eye Institute, and would eventually succeed him there as the third Director of the Institute. Wheeler was discharged from the army as a Major in 1919.

Wheeler, Dunnington and others shared a private practice on W 40^th St in New York before moving to larger quarters at W. 59^th St. He was made a Surgeon at the Eye and Ear Infirmary, and Professor of Ophthalmology at NYU and Bellevue Hospital, and Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Bellevue in the early 1920’s. Many of his wealthier patients balked at going to the Infirmary, so he made frequent house calls, and even did surgeries at patients’ homes, bringing along a technician, instruments, a folding operating table, a sterilizer, dressings, and other equipment.

Wheeler and his family had gone on vacation to Europe in 1923, and while there he attended a course on the new “slit-lamp” instrument given by Swiss ophthalmologist Dr Alfred Vogt (1879-1943) in Zurich. He immediately recognized how this instrumentation would markedly change clinical ophthalmology, and instituted slit-lamp use in his New York practice upon his return.

In 1928, Wheeler left New York Eye & Ear to join Presbyterian Hospital and become Professor of Ophthalmology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons. He became the first Director of the Department of Ophthalmology in 1933 and moved his private offices to the new Eye Institute.

In 1931, Elisabeth Reid, the widow of Whitelaw Reid, publisher of the Herald Tribune, US Ambassador to the UK under Theodore Roosevelt, and Vice Presidential Candidate in 1892, informed Wheeler that the King of Siam, Prajadhipok, had cataracts, and she had referred him to Wheeler for evaluation and care. It was determined that he required surgery, and the Reid estate in Westchester (currently Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY) was used for the operation, as the new Eye Institute was not yet completed. He was assisted by 2 ophthalmic surgeons and 4 nurses. One of his surgical assistants, Dr Thomas Johnson, remained at the estate for 5 days to care for the king, who had an uneventful recovery. There was extensive publicity after the operation, including a front page story in the Herald Tribune, and a profile of Dr Wheeler in the New Yorker magazine. The King awarded Wheeler the title “Commander of the Order of the Cross of Siam.”

At the height of his fame, he cut back on his practice, to concentrate more on teaching. When the Eye Institute opened in 1933, he moved the Department there. It had been located at the Herman Knapp Memorial Eye Hospital at 10th Avenue and 57th Street until 1928, before moving into the new Presbyterian Hospital on 168^th St, in the Vanderbilt Clinic. In 1940, The Herman Knapp Memorial Eye Hospital closed, and merged its endowed beds into the new Eye Institute.

Two years after the new Institute opened, in1935, Wheeler noticed a visual disturbance in his left eye, and after transilluminating his own eye with a bright light source, he deduced that the probable cause was an ocular melanoma. His longtime colleague, Dr Dunnington, examined him and concurred with the diagnosis of malignant melanoma. Shortly thereafter, the eye was removed; as soon as his health permitted, he returned to active patient care and teaching. John Wheeler continued his practice, and remained as E.I. Director, until his death on August 22, 1938 at his summer home in Vermont.

His obituary in the Archives of Ophthalmology, said: “No man ever more enjoyed the affection of his associates and his subordinates. No man ever inspired less jealousy and ill will…. As the older men retired, his reputation grew, not because he was pushful or aggressive but because of his universally conceded ability.”

{Much of this information is reproduced from the Chapter on Dr John Wheeler in Maynard C. Wheeler‘s (no relation) book, “The Eye Institute in New York: An Intimate History.” Cooper Square Publishers, NY, 1969).