Retired Kansas optometrist uses skills around the world

SALINA, Kan. (KSNW) –Retired Salina optometrist Dr. Dale Cole is now retired, but throughout his career, he took his skills far beyond Kansas. He served in 17 countries on 29 missions through Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity/International.

“Most people we see, it’s gonna be the first time you’ve ever had your eyes examined, and we’ll see lots and lots of people that strong prescriptions,” Dr. Cole said. “It was awesome. Franklin Harms said one time, he would say, your profession is not complete until you’ve been on a VOSH trip.”

VOSH missions serve 800-2500 patients. With a team of 21, they served 4,000 in Africa. A normal mission will dispense 2,000+ pairs of glasses. Dr. Franklin Harms of Hillsboro started the organization in 1970. It has grown into an international program with over 100 chapters, serving over a million patients around the world.

“They’re very appreciative of anything we can do for them,” Dr. Cole said. “So many of them need reading glasses because they couldn’t see, read or sew, and so it was very important to them to be able to get glasses fixed up. It’s the first time for most of these people to even get help, and we feel it’s really important that they be able to function in life and get the benefits of that. So let’s enable them to become more productive themselves. And they, they appreciated the help.”

On the trips, he has seen the desperation of people who just want to see.

“We’ll usually have people starting to form lines the night before the exams even start, and they’ll stand and be there all night long and probably throughout the whole day in line to get in,” Dr. Cole said.

Dr. Cole graduated from Great Bend High School, attended Fort Hays, and graduated from the University of Houston College of Optometry in 1968. He served in the Army from 1968 to 1970 as an optometrist at Walter Reed Hospital and Fort Leonard. Then, he started a practice in Salina, Kansas, in 1971 before retiring in 2006.

Dr. Cole was elected President of VOSH International 2003-2004 and the first Kansan to be VOSH International President.

Here are a few stories, as seen through Dr. Cole’s eyes:

1. “Young boy in Honduras was led into the clinic who said he was blind. The evaluation revealed he was very nearsighted—blurry beyond 1 foot. As prescription was increased, his eyes began to open. At -15 units, he began looking around (I need -3 diopters). We sent him outside to the patio with a prescription close to what he would need, and he began to cry—he could see his friends on the playground. We were able to fit him with fairly accurate glasses (2 pair). When asked what he would now do that he could see, he said they had kicked him out of school because he could not read—he would now go back to school and show them he wasn’t dumb.
2. Little girl, maybe 2, could not see due to having had cataract surgery (removes the powerful lens behind the colored part of the eye—iris), but was not given replacement implants. She needed very strong cataract glasses, and we happened to have a lapidarist (He could grind glass to shape). He ground down adult cataract lenses to fit the baby’s frame. When she put them on—she looked at her hands, then up to her mother and had a huge grin as this was the first time she could see her mother. Tears flowed throughout the clinic.
3. We discovered after several missions that we needed to pass out numbers to those in line to prevent crowding into a line. Lines would begin forming the night before the clinic opened and would usually be 200+ early in the morning.
4. One elderly lady came back the day after receiving reading glasses and waited in line most of the day, carrying her Bible.  She wanted to show the doctors she could now read her Bible.”

Dr. Cole says the trips were rewarding and impactful.

“It would be beautiful if everyone could go on one of these trips or just go overseas and see what life’s like in other places, and you’ll appreciate what you’ve got here,” Dr. Cole said.

He also became interested in photography during VOSH missions and eventually produced a book of photographs called “ Journeys Around the World .”

If you would like to nominate a person or business for Positive Connections, fill out KSN’s online contact form.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KSN-TV.