One-eyed Hawk Kept Sight Of The Main Game

The Age

Tuesday September 13, 2005

GWENDA SMYTH

JOHN LLEWELLYN COLVIN, AM EDUCATOR, INNOVATOR IN OPHTHALMOLOGY 14-1-1929 - 6-8-2005

JOHN Colvin, inspirational teacher of ophthalmology, eye doctor to the Hawthorn Football Club and specialist clinician for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, who also helped design special anti-glare glasses for US astronauts, has died at a community facility at Forrest Hill after several years of failing health. He was 76.

His death prompted Robert Guest, chief executive of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists to write: "There is not a member of the profession in this state, nor, I suspect, within the realm of general practice, who does not know John's name and the huge contribution he has made to education in ophthalmology in the past four decades."

Colvin's name is also known beyond the lecture theatre - to generations of pilots whose years of service were extended by his customised lenses; to the Apollo astronauts who used his "hood glasses" when docking in space; in remote towns such as Tibooburra and Innamincka where, as the visiting eye doctor, he flew in for 25 years; and to two decades of footballers at Hawthorn, where he was honorary eye specialist and a passionate supporter.

John Llewellyn Colvin was born at Sandy Bay in Hobart and educated in Brisbane and Sydney, where his father worked as an accountant for a large pipe company.

He graduated in medicine from the University of Queensland in 1953. Hospital appointments followed, including five years in Britain. He had his first opportunity to teach at the General Infirmary in Leeds, and it was there that he met theatre sister Sylvia Brooke, who became his wife. He decided to specialise in eye medicine, gained a diploma of ophthalmology and became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

In 1961 John returned to Australia. He entered private practice in Melbourne and simultaneously joined the staff of the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital as an honorary assistant surgeon.

At the hospital he introduced his legendary lectures for medical students, delivered - according to a recent hospital bulletin- "with simplicity and humour, megaphones and trumpets". And there were also the "golden gong", the bongo drum and the jew's harp, used to emphasise right and wrong answers.

These voluntary lectures, at 8.30am on a Saturday, began with an audience of four resident students, but grew in popularity until 200 were packing into the theatre.

John estimated that over 37 years he gave 1000 lectures to a total of 12,000 students. He taught in his own inimitable way, dogmatically asserting basic principles of eye care, including his "Golden Eye Rules", later adopted by schools of medicine far and wide.

John became sub-dean and then dean of the clinical school, at the Eye and Ear Hospital and in recognition of his unique teaching service, the John Colvin Clinical School was named in his honour.

Teaching was one of John's passions, flying was another, and he found a way to blend the two. In 1950 he had joined the University of Queensland Air Squadron and four years later gained his unrestricted pilot's licence.

In Britain, he would spend his holidays at Farnborough, working for the Institute of Aviation Medicine. As a reservist back in Australia, he became a consultant, then senior ophthalmologist to the RAAF, rising to the rank of group captain over 40 years of service.

John co-designed spectacles that enabled pilots whose near sight was weakening to continue to meet flying requirements. These were adopted by RAAF and civil aviation pilots. When he retired from the RAAF Reserve at the age of 65, he was awarded the Reserve Force Decoration for his service.

Earlier, in 1966, a conversation with US astronauts Walter Schirra and Frank Borman about the problem of excessive glare in outer space, prompted John, with two opticians, to devise anti-glare spectacles able to withstand nine times the force of gravity, together with hooded glasses for use during docking. Both were adopted by NASA and used on Apollo 7 and subsequent missions.

John lectured in many countries to groups of GPs and paramedics on ophthalmology and aviation medicine.

Humour was never far below the surface. In a Las Vegas lecture titled "How the Australian Aborigine Helped America Get to the Moon" he used bullroarer, boomerang and woomera to illustrate the principles of flight and "lift-off". This tour de force resulted in an invitation to Washington to judge the national boomerang throwing championship!

In 1974 he was asked to fly over central Australia with an ophthalmologist from Washington who wished to see the Royal Flying Doctor Service in action. Thus began 25 years of service with the RFDS, organising outback eye clinics and teaching eye care to local staff.

As a result of family loyalty to the Hawthorn Football Club, John was invited to be honorary club ophthalmologist, a role he filled for two decades, attending Thursday training sessions as well as Saturday games. He relished the egalitarian culture and the friendships with officials and players alike, and took pride in the service award presented to him on his retirement.

In 1981 John was made a member of the Order of Australia for services to medicine. As with all the praise and plaudits heaped on him throughout his life, he accepted the honour with humour, humility and great enjoyment, meanwhile continuing his work.

Fame never interfered with John's love for his family. He is survived by his wife Sylvia, their three children and six grandchildren.

Gwenda Smyth is a friend of the Colvin family.

© 2005 The Age

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