As corneal transplant surgery moved from an
experimental technique in a university setting
to a fairly common surgical procedure, it was
recognized that a larger, "free-standing" facility
was needed to serve University and private-practice
surgeons alike.
The 1970's would lay the groundwork
for what would eventually become the Missouri
Lions Eye
Research Foundation. In 1972, The Eye Research
Foundation of Missouri was formalized as a publicly
owned, not-for-profit organization. In that same
year, the Board of Trustees of the Bethesda Eye
Foundation (BEF) in Bethesda, MD agreed to name
the Missouri Foundation as its successor and
contributed
$850,000 to the newly formed organization.
By 1974, the Foundation began
construction on its new facility in eastern
Columbia, using
the BEF resources, $250,000 contributed by the
Missouri Lions and six acres of land donated
by Bryon
and Gail Keene. The Missouri Lions Eye
Bank moved to its current location and the Missouri
Lions continued to support the eye banking activities
while the foundation added several programs,
such as, ocular research and glaucoma screening.
At the 1987 State Convention,
the Lions of Missouri voted to accept financial
responsibility for all
programs at the Eye Research Foundation, renaming
it the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation.
The Foundation continued
to grow throughout the years and in 1997 added
eye banking operations in Illinois and Kansas,
prompting the creation of the Heartland Lions
Eye Banks, with the cooperation of the Illinois
and Kansas Lions. It is now one of the largest
providers of human corneas for transplantation
and eye tissue for medical research in the world.
Although eye banking techniques
and the Missouri Lions Eye Research Foundation
have undergone many transformations
over the past 44 years, its mission has remained
the same; the restoration and preservation of
sight. View Timeline
