Alexander R. Irvine, MD History of Retina

tribute

Alexander R. Irvine, MD, was renowned for his clinical and academic leadership as head of the Retina Division at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He died on September 14, 2024 at the age of 86.

“Alex Irvine, or Alex, as he was known to the residents, was the doctor I wanted to be—always the smartest, most curious, and most humble doctor in the room,” recalls ASRS President J. Michael Jumper, MD, FASRS. “His passion for learning and clinical excellence was infectious and continues to impact the Department of Ophthalmology at UCSF and those who were fortunate enough to train with him.”

“Alex Irvine significantly influenced so many UCSF residents to pursue careers in retina—including me,” says UCSF Ophthalmology Department Chair and Distinguished Professor Jacque Duncan, MD. “He always asked, ‘What is this patient trying to teach me so I can take better care of patients going forward?’ To this day, when I’m not sure what the right course of action to take for a patient is, I will ask myself, ‘What would Alex Irvine do?’ And whenever I do, I always arrive at the right decision to deliver the best care for my patients.”

"Dr. Irvine’s passing was 'a huge loss for us all,'” says Daniel M. Schwartz, MD, of UCSF. “He was a role model, consummate clinician, and one of the most decent people I’ve ever met.”

“Dr. Irvine was passionate about patient care,” recalls Sharon Solomon, MD, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University. “I remember rounding with him at the bedside of inpatients after busy clinic days. He was equally passionate about training residents. “My fondest clinic memories at UCSF are of Dr. Irvine flinging open the wooden shutter in the wall that separated his exam room from the residents’ exam room,” Dr. Solomon adds. “I remember him yelling to hurry and come see the macular pathology while he had the contact lens on the eye. He was fond of saying, ‘You see it. You just don’t recognize it.’ Under Dr. Irvine’s mentorship, I learned to recognize what I was seeing in the retina and to become expert at it. Dr. Irvine absolutely influenced my decision to pursue a rewarding career in retina and academic medicine. I was privileged to have trained at UCSF under him.”

Work History

1970

Chief of Ophthalmology at Letterman Army Medical Center

1972

Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco

1998

Professor Emeritus, Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco

Education and Training

Fellowships:

Corneal disease at the University of Florida, Gainesville with Dr. Herbert Kauffman

Retina at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute with Drs. Edward Norton and Robert Machemer

Residency: University of California, San Francisco, 1968

Medical School: Harvard Medical School, 1964

Reflections

H. Richard McDonald, MD

Years ago, I told Alex Irvine I could never thank him enough for all he had done for me. He smiled and said, ‘None of us get through life without someone supporting us, going out on a limb for us, believing in us.' He told me I would help others in the same way, somewhere down the road. I have patterned my career on the things I learned from Alex Irvine, many of which had nothing to do with medicine.

Alex Irvine was always teaching, giving generously of his time and knowledge to residents. He was old school: strict, honest beyond words, and fair. Alex was a man who saw more in younger people than they could see in themselves. He certainly did in me. I have spent 40 years trying to justify that belief.

Allan Flach, MD, PharmD

I was so fortunate to become a first-year resident in the UCSF Department of Ophthalmology the year Alex Irvine joined the department as a faculty member. It was even a greater honor for me to become a fellow faculty member.

He was a wonderful colleague, an inspirational teacher, and a superb role model for all of us. I was so lucky to have had his instruction and even luckier to have worked with Alex in our department for so many decades.

Creig Hoyt, MD

Alex Irvine, a Harvard man with a famous surname, will be better known as a man with an apple, a motorcycle (later a horse), and a single plaid tie. He never changed his lean lunch of an apple, occasionally garnished with celery. It was meant as a time-saver rather than a weight-loss regimen. Alex was always behind schedule for several reasons. He was ever-willing to add emergency patients to an overbooked schedule or to walk down the hall to provide a consultation for a perplexed colleague.

Yet, it was commitment to teaching that slowed his pace. Every patient was shared with his resident, and in the operating room, he demanded that the resident see every important detail of the pathology and the surgical procedure.

Alex was born to teach. He did not seek leadership positions, or the kudos garnered by delivering highly regarded named lectureships. Alex contributed important works in the literature but was not obsessed with writing large numbers of papers. He was focused on the things most essential to him: his family, students, and interesting hobbies. We will not see his like again.

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Additional Resources

Retina Times: ASRS Remembers Alexander R. Irvine, MD (1938-2024)

*Please note: Portions of this Tribute were previously published in Retina Times. See article link in the resources section above.

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(Published May 2025)

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