Roswell Robert Pfister was born on a cold January 19th in Buffalo, New York, the second son to Milton and Florence Pfister, whose parents had all immigrated from Germany, seeking the American promise. He trudged through many snow drifts to Public School 39, but his real education lay in independently reading everything from science to philosophy.
He was also an avid photographer, which would later enhance his skills in producing some of the most famous electron micrographs of the eye. After only 3 years at the University of Buffalo, he was accepted into the prestigious University of Michigan Medical school. His mentors immediately recognized his exceptional skills as a surgeon, but Dr. Pfister also wanted to pursue research. He wrote his first scientific papers as a medical student with Professor Reimer Wolter, including a provocative paper in the journal Neurology, “Centrifugal fibers of the Human Optic Nerve”.
Dr. Pfister was accepted into the elite University of Michigan Residency in Ophthalmology, but as the USA was at the peak of the Cuban Missile crisis, Uncle Sam requested his services in the U.S. Air Force instead. There, as a medical officer, he delivered over 1000 babies. His time in the service overlapped our entry into the Viet Nam war. He was honorably discharged as Captain Roswell R. Pfister.
He returned to the University of Michigan, taking up Residency in the Department of Ophthalmology, earning a Certificate of Cornea Research Fellow and completing an M.S. in Ophthalmology. The Harvard and Retina Foundation in Boston, Mass, offered him a Clinical Fellowship in the Cornea service, where he began a lifelong collaboration and friendship with the renowned Claes Dohlman, MD, PhD, producing 9 papers in 2 years. This experience began the fascination that would lead Roswell to international renown as expert in the treatment of the chemically injured eye. Dr. Pfister took a research/teaching post at the University of Colorado until he accepted the Chair of Ophthalmology and Professorship at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, The Eye Foundation Hospital from 1976-1981. Under his leadership, he oversaw the radical change in Ophthalmic surgery from inpatient to primarily outpatient procedures. He served as a strong mentor to his residents.
In 1982, he took his lab and moved to Brookwood Medical Center, where he supported his 2000 square foot Eye Research lab with millions of dollars in government grants. He would spend days, nights and weekends working to complete his proposal before each grant deadline set by the National Eye Institute. Dr. Pfister spanned an enormous range of intellectual activities, in one day going from laboratory studies in molecular biology to clinical laboratory and patient research, to full medical and surgical Ophthalmic patient care. Indeed, a wide range of ophthalmic procedures including stem cell transplant, cataract and corneal transplant were often on his surgical schedule.
In 1990, he met Sara Alvarez, OD, PhD at the ARVO research meeting in Sarasota. By chance, friend Ken Kenyon had given him her telephone number two years before. Roswell called her and invited her to his office to see his ‘Electron Micrographs’. They found kindred spirits in medicine and science, but the final key was when they discovered they shared a lifetime family tradition of dancing. For 32 years, they practiced together first at Brookwood Eye Institute in Birmingham and, since 2011, at their office building known as Pfister Vision in Vestavia Hills. They danced together, traveled together, and explored their woodland home, Aslan Forest together. There was an intellectual glue, a joking banter and a romantic passion which displayed the boundless affection they felt for each other.
Dr. Pfister had the highest level of surgical skill, a medical superstar athlete. He was constantly perfecting his corneal transplant surgeries, doing three different types of transplant: the back cornea layer transplant (DSEK), full corneal transplant, and a transplant involving only the front of the cornea (DALK), so difficult only a few corneal surgeons attempt it. All this on a tissue only half a millimeter thick! Dr. Pfister has patients who have had clear corneal transplants for more than 40 years, when the average corneal transplant lasts only 9 years. Dr. Alvarez had the joy of assisting in surgery where she could admire the breathtaking skills of a Master Surgeon.
Dr. Pfister’s soft resonant voice was used to encourage and inspire: his surgical team, his fellow researchers, his physician colleagues, the Ophthalmology residents, his office staff and his patients. His dedication to caring for others kept his patients and their families on course over the long treatment periods needed to resolve their most challenging diseases . His achievement as that rare combination of clinician and researcher was an ideal, hard fought for and much admired. He was a natural leader, not afraid to take on the role as Hero and Mentor, as witnessed by the many whose lives he influenced.
Dr. Pfister was a classic researcher. Because of his open and innovative mind and his encyclopedic knowledge base, he had many dramatic leaps in his research, yet he knew there were no shortcuts in Science. “You may have a hunch which leaps up flights of stairs, but everything still has to proven, step by step.” His wide range of scientific interests included:
-Author of over 200 scientific papers, chapters, abstracts and presentations, internationally
-Originator of basic and clinical research giving rise to novel, successful treatment of severe chemical injuries of the eye
-President and Director, ‘The Eye Research Foundation’, a
non-profit 501c organization for eye research & education
-National Eye Institute recipient of 15 competitive research grants lasting 3 to 5 years each, totaling over $5 million
-Reviewer of original papers for 20 different scientific Journals
-Patent issued for Arginine-Threonine-Argenine
-Research into the basic mechanisms in Human Keratoconus
-Two new book chapters on corneal transplant techniques in Keratoconus (soon to be published, 2022)
-Retrospective clinical trial on methods to increase success in the highest risk cornea and stem cell transplant
-Medical director of “Advancing Sight Network” for 40 years
Passion and Artistry
No one who saw Roswell dance could help but be mesmerized by the passion, grace and improvisational fluidity of his motion. There was an intangible joy in his dancing and his loving connection with his partner.
Roswell Pfister and Sara Alvarez, known as the “Dancing Doctors”, both came from dancing families and have danced since childhood. Together they gave dance exhibitions from local performances to national and international performances in New Orleans, Tampa, London, Athens, Budapest, Beijing and Istanbul. They performed in musicals for Birmingham's 2 productions of “Evita”, as the “ghost dancers”, and in the musical “Red, Hot and Cole”, all at the Virginia Samford Theatre, Birmingham. The “Dancing Doctors” were featured in an article in Dancing USA magazine, presented by the Birmingham News, the UAB Report and the Times-Picayune. They appeared on television for the Alys Stephens Center, on “Daytime Alabama”, dancing Tango for a national commercial, for the Ms. Senior Alabama Pageant, and their local Tango class was featured on a Fox TV news report. They took part in a Rhythm and Dance cultural exchange in Havana, Cuba and were dance stars of the Tennessee Philharmonic production “Tango, the Passion of Argentina”. They wrote, choreographed and directed 2 full-length original Tango shows, one commissioned by the Croft Institute “The Life and Love of Tango”, and the other “Tango- language without words” at the Birmingham Dance Theatre. They studied extensively with the masters of Argentine Tango in this country and abroad. They had a Tango Dance School in Birmingham since 1996, and took their tango students on 17 annual pilgrimages to CITA, the premier Tango Congress in Argentina. Roswell was generous with his artistic gifts: spending hours perfecting a tango dance lesson, rehearsing weeks with his performing dance company and hosting fabulous dance parties in his home. All with love and joy.
He leaves to cherish his legacy: wife and soulmate Sarah Alvarez Pfister, OD, PhD; son Darryl Pfister, MD (Anne) of Phoenix, Az; daughter Yvonne Pfister Carrouth (Mark) of Steamboat Springs, Co; grandchildren Tyler Pfister (4th year Vanderbilt Medical School, Tn) , Connor Pfister (Data Engineer, Charlotte, NC), Christopher Carrouth (Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Co), Leah Carrouth (Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Co); and brother Milton Pfister (Arlene) of Buffalo, NY; dear friends Richard Richards, Rita Snyder, Kris Conrad, Annquinetta & Dr. Otis Miller, Neal Kay, MD, Beth Nicholson, Chris Isbell, Meagan Justice, Cynthia Coleman, Christy Vest, Alan Blake, L. Bertoli, MD, F. Dumas, MD, R. Pachynski, MD and many other family and friends too numerous to mention. Thanks to all of you for enriching his life as he enriched yours.
Celebration of Life
10TH NOVEMBER 2022
Thursday 4:30 - 6PM
Birmingham Botanical Gardens Auditorium
2612 Lane Park Road Birmingham AL 35223
Interment
11th November 2022
Friday 9:30am
Alabama National Cemetery
3133 Hwy. 119 Montevallo, AL 35115
Condolences and tax deductible donations can be sent , in Dr. Roswell Pfister’s name to “The Eye Research Foundation” 2198 Columbiana Road Suite 200, Vestavia Hills, AL 35216
