MCG ophthalmology, vision research benefit from Knights Templar support

The masonic order of the Knights Templar is on a mission to fight blindness. They are committed to furthering vision treatment “through research, education and supporting access to care.”

A local group based out of Macon assumed this call and have made it their lifelong mission to bring the impact of this national movement to Georgia. They organized the Knights Templar Educational Foundation, Inc. of Georgia that has now given nearly $1 million in funding to the Department of Ophthalmology at Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia.

“We’ve been supporting the Medical College of Georgia all these years because they have very good research programs,” said Bobby Simmons, Grand Treasurer of Grand Encampment, Knights Templar USA. “It is our hope that one day blindness will be prevented.”

In 2017, they felt a need to build something more permanent and began funding the Knights Templar Educational Foundation of Georgia/S. Fleetwood Maddox Chair in Pediatric Ophthalmology. Endowed chairs support the career of an esteemed faculty member. Not only does it allow MCG to recruit the best and brightest, but it will also support teaching, research, and clinical activities for an ophthalmologist in Georgia in perpetuity.

The Trustees of the Knights Templar Educational Foundation, Inc. made the gift in memory of their advisor, S. Fleetwood Maddox, MD, a native of Macon and a former ophthalmology instructor at MCG. He served as the ophthalmologist advisor for the Knights Templar Educational Foundation for many years.

Wade C. Smith, Grand York Rite Treasurer of Georgia, said Maddox was passionate about providing the very best ophthalmology care for all who needed it, regardless of their ability to pay. Maddox began recruiting young ophthalmologists who shared his passion and who would promise to stay in Georgia and provide free ophthalmology surgeries and services to those in need. In naming the chair for Maddox, the Knights Templar ensure his legacy continues.

The Knights Templar also honor Julian Nussbaum, MD with this gift. He was the chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and advocated for the Knights to begin funding the chair. He trained under Maddox and was a collaborator with the Knights Templar for many years.

The chair is now fully funded and will be used to recruit a new faculty member to the faculty of Ophthalmology at MCG. Mark Bradley, Grand York Rite Secretary/Recorder of Georgia, believes partnering with MCG and funding the Maddox endowed chair is the best way to help fill the gaps in ophthalmology services throughout the state.

“I think the best legacy any of us can hope for is to impact more Georgians; and if we can draw the cream of the crop to the Medical College of Georgia, we’re going to do that,” Bradley said. “We can’t, as the Knights Templar Educational Foundation, impact all that we want to impact, but through the Medical College of Georgia, we can.”

Steven Brooks, MD, current chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, feels the impact of this gift personally. He currently holds the department’s first name chair, the William S. Hagler, MD Chair, and is co-director of the AU James and Jean Culver Vision Discovery Institute. As such, he understands the importance of support for clinical and research activities to fight blindness.

“Philanthropic support enables us to undertake groundbreaking research, teach young ophthalmologists and vision scientists, and enhance the care we provide to patients. It is absolutely vital to those missions and creates a strong and enduring mutual bond between the medical community and those to whom care is given,” Brooks said.

“The very generous support of the Knights Templar Eye Foundation and the Knights Templar Education Foundation of Georgia over the years has been and continues to be truly monumental. We are extremely grateful and honored to be recipients of their philanthropy.”

Brooks has a long history with the Knights Templar. As an early career physician and faculty member, he received the Career Starter Grant from the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, their national philanthropic body.

Recently, the Knights Templar Eye Foundation awarded this prestigious grant to Syed Adeel H. Zaidi, PhD, an assistant research scientist in the MCG Vascular Biology Center, who along with Manuela Bartoli, PhD, research director for ophthalmology, is at least the third researcher at MCG to receive the award and put it to use investigating blindness in premature babies.

Retinopathy of prematurity, or ROP, is a disease that damages the vascular and neuronal parts of the retina, causing infants to go blind. ROP is among the most common illnesses that affect premature or low birth-weight infants.

Through their long partnership, the Knights Templar have magnified the impact of the physicians and researchers of the Department of Ophthalmology. In establishing the Knights Templar/Fleetwood Maddox Chair, they ensure that a physician will follow Maddox in caring for the vision of the next generation.