Additional Benefits of Cordes Membership

• Membership wall certificate
• Communications and mailings that keep us up to date with each other as well as with the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Ophthalmology
• Recognition in the roster of Active Cordes Members in an issue of Vision magazine, produced by That Man May See. Every issue of Visions seeks to highlight the accomplishments of our alumni. You are invited to send information to leah.jarvis@ucsf.edu to be included in an upcoming issue
• Cordes membership directory containing your colleagues’ updated information

Make a Gift to Support Resident Education

As alumni, each of us can take special pride in the increasing luster of your own UCSF education when our residents succeed and become leaders nationwide. The number of HEED Fellowships awarded overwhelmingly come to our UCSF residents. Since 2009, 47 percent of all UCSF Ophthalmology graduates have received this honor. Our program garners more Heed Fellowship awardees than any other in the country, a significant testament to its caliber. Our alumni gifts make a huge difference in the $100,000 spent annually by All May See for the department to provide trainees with didactic materials, surgical training supplies, educational travel, and funding for their research programs.

The education and training of the next generation of clinicians and scientists is one of our highest priorities at UCSF Ophthalmology. Please make a tax-deductible gift to All May See to support resident education. Help us inspire the future of ophthalmology. Click here to learn more about supporting resident education through All May See 

Meetings

2008:

• Cordes Reunion Classes
• Call For Papers
• 2008 Cordes Scientific Meeting Program
• Cordes Society Reception, AAO, Atlanta- November 9, 2008

2009:

• Cordes Society Reception, AAO, San Francisco, Saturday, October 24, 2009
• 2009Cordes Society Member Letter v4
• 2009 Cordes PROGRAM Final
• Cordes Society 50th Anniversary Meeting Call for Papers

2010:

• 12th annual Residents’ Day & 51st annual Scientific Meeting, March 11-12, 2010
• Cordes Society Reception, AAO Chicago, Sunday, October, 17, 2010

2011:

• 2011ResidentsDay&ScientificMeeting
• Call for papers 2011
• 2011 Cordes AAO invite

2012:

• 14th annual Residents’ Day & 53rd annual Scientific Meeting, March 8-9, 2012
• Call for papers
• 2012 Cordes Invitation & Response web
• 2012 Scientific Meeting Program
• Annual cocktail reception held during the American Academy of Ophthalmology Conference in Chicago at the Chicago Yacht Club on Sunday, November 11, 2012, from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

2013:

• The 54th Annual Scientific Meeting and reception took place at the City Club of San Francisco on Friday, March 1, 2013
• Annual cocktail reception held during the American Academy of Ophthalmology Conference in New Orleans atLe Pavillon Hotel on November 17, 2013, from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

2014:

• The 55th Annual Scientific Meeting and reception took place at the City Club of San Francisco on Friday, April 11, 2014
• Annual cocktail reception held during the American Academy of Ophthalmology Conference in Chicago at the Chicago Yacht Club on Sunday, October 19, 2014, from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

2015:

• The 56th Annual Scientific Meeting and reception took place this year at the City Club of San Francisco on Friday, April 24, 2015
• Annual cocktail reception held during the American Academy of Ophthalmology Conference in Las Vegas at the Wynn on Sunday, November 15, 2015, from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
• 2015-2016 Cordes Business Luncheon – to be held this year on Saturday December 5^th, 2015 from 12:30PM to 2:00PM at E&O Kitchen and Bar (314 Sutter Street), a short walk from the Grand Hyatt San Francisco (location of the UCSF December Course, 345 Stockton Street).
• 57th Annual Cordes Scientific Meeting – to be held immediately after the business luncheon on Saturday December 5^th, 2015 from 2:15PM to 5:15PM at the Grand Hyatt Hotel San Francisco (345 Stockton Street) in conjunction with the UCSF December Course. CME credit will be offered.

History

In the winter of 1948, as the Medical School community (and America) was coming back to normal after the end of World War II, Dr. Michael J. Hogan sent out an inquiry to former residents about having a reunion of the U.C. Eye Residents. The handwritten rough draft of his letter survives (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). Carbon copies of the final draft have been found and date the beginnings of Dr. Hogan’s ideas to February 16, 1948 (Fig. 3).

Having received many favorable responses to his initial proposal, Dr. Hogan (a.k.a. “Uncle Mike”) drafted a formal letter to all of the known residents of the U.C. Medical School program (rough draft handwritten notes are seen on Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 along with a list of residents). He worked from a partially handwritten list of the then known U.C. residents (Fig. 6 and Fig. 7).

His final draft was typewritten on August 17, 1948 (no word processors!) and we do not have an original, but, some carbon copies of his original invitations still survive, one of which is reproduced here (Fig. 8).

Of course, we all must remember that U.C.S.F. medical center was not a “campus” of the University of California at that time, it was governed by a Provost, and considered a division of U.C. Berkeley. The Berkeley campus conferred any undergraduate degrees at that time.

That original meeting of the University of California Eye Residents Association was held as scheduled, on September 11, 1948, and was considered a great success. In succeeding years, the process for holding the meeting and the resident responsibilities for organizing the meeting became more refined. For example, in 1953, when second year resident Vernon Lightfoot, M.D. was the resident in charge of getting the meeting together, his letter was a simple, mimeographed, form letter that allowed for easy responding by potential attendees such as Dr. Harrington (Fig. 9). By the time Dr. Mullen was responding for the meeting, it had boiled down to returning a simple postcard for reserving your attendance (Fig. 10 and Fig. 11).

By the mid-1950s the rosters of the University of California Eye Residents looked like the one reproduced in Fig. 12, 13, 14.

Over the years after Dr. Hogan started the meetings in 1948, Dr. Cordes’ role in this meeting for the residents became of more importance, not only because of his faithful attendance, but also because he would later consistently arrange for the banquets to be held at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco, among other things. When Dr. Cordes retired as Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, in 1959, members felt that the University of California Residents Association should be renamed in his honor because he had trained or was chairman during the training of all of the known graduates of the program at that time. He was, also, the first chairman of the “Department” of Ophthalmology. Previously, Ophthalmology had been known as a “Division” in the Department of Surgery of the School of Medicine. Since 1959, therefore, this organization has been known as the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society. (also see Historical References).

In 1999, we celebrated the 40th reunion of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society (see Scrapbook Images). The actual 50th anniversary of the University of California Eye Residents Association occurred in 1998.

Therefore, historically, the 2008 meeting will actually be the 60th reunion of the University of California Residents Association. In 2009, the annual meeting was the 50th reunion of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society.

Rosters

A current Roster is available electronically (MS Word format) upon receipt of an email request from a verifiable member of the society. Send your request to: tmms@vision.ucsf.edu. Some additional rosters available online are the following:

• Roster of William Hoyt Awards
• Roster of Hogan Lecturers (1987 onwards)
• Roster of Past and Present Officers
  
• Ophthalmology Resident List (1932 onwards)
  
• Roster of Hearst Lecturers
  
• Roster of Asbury Awards
  
• Roster of Williams Lecturers
• Roster of Hogan Garcia Awards
• Roster of Crowell Beard Awards
• Roster of Kimura Awards
• Roster of Garcia/Asbury Awards
• Roster of Kramer Lectures

Scrap Book

Click here to see images from the 1999, 40th reunion of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society.

Click here to see images from the 2008, 49th Annual Banquet.

Click here to see images from the 2009, 50th reunion of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society, provided by Greer Geiger, M.D.

Click here to see images (part two) from the 2009, 50th reunion of the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society provided by Greer Geiger, M.D.

Professional photographs are available:
Genevieve Shiffrar photographed many of the events associated with the Cordes Society Anniversary meeting. She has put online a nice selection of photos for your enjoyment. There’s an easy-to-use shopping cart to order prints. Just go to
http://shiffrar.instaproofs.com/enterEvent.php?id=116706 or to
http://shiffrar.instaproofs.com/ and click on the link “Cordes Society Anniversary.” If you have any questions, please email Genevieve directly at genevieve@shiffrar.com

Historical References

Dr. Cordes’ A.J.O. Special Issue (click here)

Dr. Cordes’ Carter Collection Essay (click here) – A series of typewritten essays, written by historical campus figures, is contained in the Carter Collection of the Rare Books Room of the Main Library. This essay was written by Dr. Cordes as he contemplated his retirement from a 40 year relationship with the Parnassus campus. It recalls his memories from the earliest years of the Medical School of the University of California. It is written in his own style and, if read in its entirety, gives you a feeling that you might know him personally. It is reproduced here in its original formatting. R. Dudley Stone.