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By Jim Dryden
Michael A. Kass, M.D., first came to the School of Medicine in the 1960s. He's not sure whether it was by chance or providence that he ended up here.
He had decided on ophthalmology during medical school at Northwestern University, but he hadn't even considered coming to St. Louis for his residency. In fact, during a discussion with his adviser, Kass didn't even list the School of Medicine among his choices.
"And my adviser, who was a neurologist, asked me, 'Why aren't you going to visit Dr. Becker's program in St. Louis?' Even though he wasn't an ophthalmologist, he knew the reputation of the department here, and he said, 'You definitely need to go down there and take a look,'" recalled Kass, professor and head of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences.
He didn't get a chance to make that visit for a while because after his medical internship, he went into the military.
"The Vietnam War was in progress, and I got a letter that said I could either volunteer or get drafted. So I volunteered," Kass said.
During time on leave, he finally visited St. Louis. He liked it so much he's been here for most of the last 30 years.
"I was so impressed with the program," he said. "There were so many bright young people here, and the education of the residents seemed so important. When someone called and offered me a spot, I withdrew from everything else and accepted."
He wasn't the only one who was impressed. Bernard Becker, M.D., emeritus professor and former head of ophthalmology and visual sciences, ranks Kass among the best students ever to come through the residency program. Many --including Kass --have become leaders and department heads in some of the most famous ophthalmology programs in the world.
During residency, Kass began to focus on glaucoma research.
 The brothers Kass: (clockwise from top left) Benjamin, William, David and Paul |
"I'm afraid that was at my insistence," said Becker, himself world- renowned for his research on glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness in Americans.
But Kass said it was more a matter of modeling than of coercion.
"I was one of Dr. Becker's students --and there were many --and that was his interest," he said. "And as is common when you have a great teacher and a brilliant person, Dr. Becker had a real impact on students."
And glaucoma research has remained Kass' area of interest over the years. He has published almost 200 scientific articles, abstracts and book chapters, and most have dealt with glaucoma. In addition, for the past eight years, he has been the national principal investigator for a major multicenter project called the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study. The trial hopes to determine whether use of drops to lower pressure in the eye can prevent or delay the onset of glaucoma.
While doing his early research, Kass also got some training in education and administration, becoming the department's chief resident in 1972. In that role, he was responsible for running the Barnes Hospital Eye Clinic and the educational program for a year. He recalls the experience as one of the best of his life.
"I hope the people under me learned half as much as I did," he said. "I learned about how hospitals run, how large institutions really work and how to get things done. It was just an extraordinary year."
The next year, Kass accepted his first real job in ophthalmology as an assistant professor at Yale University. He was there for two years, but when Becker called to ask if he was interested in coming back, he jumped at the chance. He's been here ever since.
Because his father was away in the military, some of Kass' earliest memories involve waiting for the mailman to bring a letter from his dad.
"I have vague recollections of seeing people in uniforms, and I was aware there was a war on," Kass said. "But mainly I remember waiting every day for the postman to bring letters and kind of holding my breath. Only when we got a letter from him did we know my dad was OK."
His father made it through the war and came home to establish a medical practice in Chicago, where Kass grew up rooting for the White Sox, hating the New York Yankees and wanting to be a doctor.
"I can't really explain why, but I think all of my life, even from early childhood, I just assumed I would become a doctor," he said. "I don't believe I ever considered anything else."
In fact, his ultimate choice of ophthalmology was based partly on the fallacious assumption that it would somehow be easier to learn everything there was to know about ophthalmology than it would be to learn all about, say, internal medicine or neurology.
"It shortly became obvious to me that I had been kidding myself," he said. "I couldn't learn all of ophthalmology, but I liked the idea that the field combined so many things. You could do medical treatments. You could do surgical treatments. These days, everybody in almost every field uses microscopes to operate, but in those days, ophthalmology was one of the first to use microsurgical techniques."
Interestingly, he liked the very fine, craftsman-like approach to surgery that ophthalmology offered.
But, "I'm the last person you want working on your car or fixing the plumbing in your house," Kass laughed. "I can change light bulbs, and I can do a few other simple things. But the dexterity I've learned doing microsurgery hasn't translated into other areas of my life."
"Michael is quick to see the contradictory, ironic and frustrating aspects of what we call progress," said Arthur H. Neufeld, Ph.D., the Bernard Becker Research Professor of Ophthalmology who has known Kass since his stint at Yale. "In the midst of a difficult discussion, he'll often break the tension with a dry, humorous comment. He takes what he does seriously, but he doesn't take himself too seriously."
At first, he didn't even consider himself a serious candidate to head the department. Instead, he accepted an interim appointment, mainly out of a sense of duty.
"I thought I owed it to the department to provide some stability and leadership for an interim time," he said. "If I could, I should do that. That was my original intent."
Only after doing the job for a while did he find he enjoyed the challenges. That's when he entered his own name into the search for a chair.
As with any job, things can occasionally get frustrating, and some days he wonders about that decision. But his mentor, Bernard Becker, has no doubts.
"When the previous chairman left, a search committee reviewed and spoke to the best people in the country about replacing him," Becker said. "But they found out that we already had the best guy right here. And I couldn't agree more."
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