Harold G. Scheie*

Harold Scheie was born in Brookings County, South Dakota, in 1909. His family later moved to a farm on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, where Scheie received his early education in a one-room schoolhouse.

Scheie attended the University of Minnesota, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1921, followed by his medical degree. In 1940, he received a doctorate in science from the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an instructor and then associate professor of ophthalmology.

During World War II, Scheie served at the U.S. Army's 20th General Hospital in the jungle on the India-Burma border. There he saved the sight of Lord Louis Mountbatten after a jeep accident. Scheie retired from the Army in 1964 with the rank of brigadier-general, and was awarded the Legion of Merit and was made a member of the Order of the British Empire.

After returning to Pennsylvania, Scheie remained connected with the University of Pennsylvania for most of his professional life, serving as department chair from 1960 until 1977. In 1972, he founded the Scheie Eye Institute. He developed a technique for cataract removal that became widely used and was ultimately named after him.