“Good farmers, who take seriously their duties as stewards of Creation and of their land’s inheritors, contribute to the welfare of society in more ways than society usually acknowledges, or even knows.”  Wendell Berry

As Dr. Howard Gimbel drove his father’s tractor across the fields of their family farm in Alberta, Canada, he contemplated what he might do after college. He had been studying physics at Walla Walla University and was considering following his uncle and brother into medicine—however, there he was torn when he thought, ‘Who would tend to the family farm? Who would muck the manure from the barn? Who would take care of the animal’s needs?’ That was the thing about farm work—it wasn’t done merely to please a boss or make a sum of money. “It was done,” Dr. Gimbel says, “because the animals and nature demanded it of you.” But Dr. Gimbel’s eventual decision to go to medical school would be less of an abandonment of that kind of work more of an extension of it. Medicine would engage that very same passion for meeting the needs of Creation that had been instilled in him during the harvest season.

On a morning in May, Dr. Gimbel graduated from Walla Walla University and that very same afternoon married his wife Judy. Next stop for the newly-weds—Loma Linda University. During medical school orientation, one of the faculty shared a statistic with the students saying that the life expectancy after entering medical school was about 46 years for Loma Linda University graduates. Judy, thinking the number unacceptable said, “Not my husband!” and from that point on decided that health would be of top priority. They ate a plant-based diet and refrained from caffeine and alcohol completely. Judy took every health class available, determined not to let the strenuous demands of medical school wear on either of their health.

While on rotation at the eye clinic, Dr. Gimbel discovered his love for ophthalmology. “I liked ophthalmology for the same reasons I liked physics,” he says. The field offered a direct and magnified view of the pathology and the findings were objective instead of subjective. After completing a residency at White Memorial Medical Center, the Gimbels moved back to Alberta where Dr. Gimbel set up his practice. He spent the first 10 years in general ophthalmology where he acquired the nickname “Gadget Gimbel” because he was always adapting to new instrumentation in order to increase the accuracy and efficiency of exams and procedures. “All of the surgical techniques I innovated were to prevent certain complications,” says Dr. Gimbel. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

In 1974, Dr. Gimbel had the opportunity to take the course in phacoemulsification—a procedure that was drastically changing cataract surgery for the better. The new phacoprobe allowed a surgeon to enter the eye by way of a very small incision and use an ultrasonic tip to emulsify the cataract, which could then be aspirated. During the course in New York at the phacoemulsification course the surgeons were instructed to abstain from caffeine and alcohol before doing the delicate surgery. Many ignored the warning, having martinis and coffee with their lunch before the afternoon wet lab surgery. The next day, many of them either didn’t pass the dexterity test or the outcome of their cat’s eye surgery didn’t pass inspection. However, when the professor examined Dr. Gimbel’s work he said that he couldn’t have done it better himself. Although adapting to new techniques is never easy, Dr. Gimbel says, “God gave me the confidence to change from how I had been trained to do it.”

Close on the heels of the radically new way to remove cataracts came the introduction of intra-ocular lenses, which eliminated the need for thick coke-bottle glasses after the cataract was removed. By 1984, increased popularity of the procedure had created a two-year hospital waiting list for those desiring this surgery. Seeing the need, Dr. Gimbel found the courage to follow the example of the U.S. Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgical Society and build the first outpatient ophthalmic surgical center in Canada—The Gimbel Eye Surgical Centre. The center is equipped with a floor to ceiling glass viewing room with a TV monitor so family members can observe the surgery and talk to the their loved ones during the procedure. Patients don’t change their clothes and are able to walk to and from the comfortable reclining dental chairs instead of an operating room table or gurney.

Dr. Gimbel says that the sheer volume of surgeries spawned innovative thoughts. “The more challenges you encounter and the more complications you have,” Dr. Gimbel says—“the more courage you have to make change, the more you see what should be done, what could be done.” He believes that it is God who inspires his innovative ideas.

Although Dr. Gimbel had adapted to the newer and safer procedures, he watched as many struggled with the transition. “Some surgeons would have a complication and go back to methods they were used to.” This inspired Dr. Gimbel’s passion to teach. Since 1984, Dr. Gimbel has been a video pioneer, recording his surgeries to be shared around the world. One of the technicians in his lab had taken a course in television and aided Dr. Gimbel in centering and magnifying his images for better quality. Thanks to the technician’s assistance, Dr. Gimbel’s videos and presentations were often a step above what others were presenting. As the recordings circulated, stories pour in from far and near of their impact. A Chinese physician told Dr. Gimbel, “My patients are from rural China and often don’t get back in. I use your technique so they don’t get secondary cataracts.”  A Czech physician said, “We got a phaco-machine and learned how to do the procedure by watching your tapes.” Another surgeon from Israel said, “It was like I was standing beside you, looking in through the microscope.”

Today, the Gimbel Library YouTube channel features over 100 high-quality demonstrations of Dr. Gimbel’s historical and current innovations and procedures. The online library continues to grow. His surgeries have also been aired on 25 live broadcasts. A truck with satellite capabilities parks outside the clinic in Calgary and is able to transmit the surgery around the world into large ballrooms or conference centers where physicians can watch every move and ask questions during the procedure. Since 1983, over 50 different fellows from Canada, the United States, Asia and Israel have trained under Dr. Gimbel and are now improving vision for people around the world.

Currently, Dr. Gimbel splits his time between The Eye Center in Calgary and the Loma Linda University campus in California where he has served as the head the ophthalmology program since February of 2000.  When asked how he has made the arrangement and balance work, he says, “Judy has made it work.” Dr. Gimbel asked Judy to join him at the practice in management during time when the changes and advancements in the field had created overwhelming demand for the service. Judy says, “We grew so fast. At one point we had 172 employees.” Dr. Gimbel says that Judy had natural skills in crisis management. “Finding out how to meet the emergency needs and plan for the future has been her gift when my focus was on the science and art of medicine.”

Because Dr. Gimbel has always been an advocate of lifestyle medicine, he is happy to report that gradually there is more and more evidence that lifestyle affects the health of the eye just as much as it does the heart. Blood vessels in the eye can rupture. Diabetics experience many complications in vision. While the terms heart attack and even brain attack are familiar today, a reference to “eye attack” might be new to some. But Dr. Gimbel says that the eye is also at risk for vessel problems and lifestyle is often a large contributing factor.

It is no surprise that the blessing of re-gaining eyesight extends beyond an individual’s ability to see. Dr. Gimbel says that when those who are considered “senile” receive some form of sight correction, reports consistently come back that the his or her personality sparked up and that they were getting so much more out of life. This is what drives Dr. Gimbel to continue to innovate, to continue to search for ways to restore not only eyesight but the quality of life for people around the world. As the Loma Linda University School of Medicine recognizes Dr. Gimbel for his commitment to humanity, we also recognize that the impact of his work is perhaps as Wendell Berry said of the farmer’s—that it is greater than society might acknowledge, greater than we might know.