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April 8, 2005
NOTED AUTHOR TOM CLANCY ENDOWS NEW PROFESSORSHIP AT THE JOHNS HOPKINS WILMER EYE INSTITUTE
Terrence P. O’Brien, M.D., Named Inaugural Tom Clancy Professor of Ophthalmology
With gifts to Johns Hopkins totaling $2 million, one of the world’s best-selling authors, Tom Clancy, will fund a new professorship in ophthalmology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Terrence P. O’Brien, M.D., was named the inaugural Tom Clancy Professor of Ophthalmology at the Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute at ceremonies.
“Endowing a professorship is one of the most effective ways a donor can improve the overall quality of a specific department,” said Peter J. McDonnell, M.D., director of the Wilmer Eye Institute. “The endowment will provide Dr. O’Brien the resources necessary to pursue research into effective treatments and cures for eye diseases.”
O’Brien, who has treated Clancy, is an internationally recognized expert in procedures to correct refractive errors. “Mr. Clancy has created a legacy that will benefit generations to come,” said O’Brien. “His magnificent gift celebrates excellence in writing and in ophthalmology,” he added, “and brings considerable resources to Wilmer's patient care, research and education.”
Literary master of best-selling thrillers such as “The Hunt for Red October” and “Patriot Games,” Clancy is a long-time supporter of the Wilmer Eye Institute who has included Wilmer in his books: Cathy Ryan, wife of Clancy's fictional hero Jack Ryan, is a surgeon at Wilmer.
In 2001, Clancy was diagnosed with pathological myopia, a rare type of nearsightedness in which the eyeball continues to elongate. This condition can lead to profound vision loss.
“Dr. O’Brien and his staff were instrumental in my winning the battle against myopia,” said Clancy. “Johns Hopkins is the best place to push back the frontiers of human medical knowledge.”
O’Brien, who came to Hopkins from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1990, is the medical director of the refractive surgery service and director of the Ocular Infectious Diseases Service and the Ocular Microbiology Laboratory, a multidisciplinary group of scientists investigating rapid diagnostic techniques and improved treatments for severe, potentially blinding eye infections.
“Dr. O’Brien is a superb clinician, a devoted and accomplished teacher and an internationally recognized investigator in his field. The Hopkins family is pleased that he has been recognized with this professorship for his excellence in medicine and patient care,” said Edward D. Miller, M.D., dean of faculty of The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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