With a heavy heart, we want to inform all OCOS members that Dr. Harue Marsden passed away after an extended fight against cancer on Thursday Feb 2. She passed away in the comfort of her own home. There will be a memorial service next Friday, February 10. For those wish to attend it will be at Marshall B. Ketchum University and you can check out the Ketchum Website for more details soon.
Harue was an amazing woman, a great mentor to her students, and dedicated so much of herself to the profession of optometry. Incredibly devoted to OCOS, she attended virtually every meeting and even our board meetings to help guide and nurture the future leaders of our society. I think it was her favorite thing to do, to inspire and develop young people to achieve more of the potential she saw in them. I remember seeing her just a couple weeks ago and she was fired up to discuss topics for our upcoming house of delegates meeting. She was always so excited to be an instrument of change, because for her, it symbolized the steady upward march of optometric progress. And it’s why she loved so much to talk to young people who were unburdened by the past—who couldn’t wait to seize the future.
I personally experienced this as she was my contact lens mentor and later friend on the OCOS board. I remember like yesterday at one of our OCOS meetings 3 years ago, she won a VISA gift certificate courtesy of one of our sponsors. A SCCO student had pulled her winning ticket. She strolled up to collect her prize, but once she got to the front she took the gift and handed it to the student who pulled her ticket with a smile. I’ve never seen anyone else do that, but that was just who Harue was.
So I ask of OCOS to honor the memory of Harue. To be worthy of her life’s work and for our part actively promote our wonderful profession. To say “yes” to those emails and calls from pre-optometry and optometry students who want to visit us in practice to learn. To break bread, share a good drink, and create lasting relationships with your optometrists colleagues. We’ll certainly miss her. We lost a good one and may she rest in peace.
Thanh Mai, OD
OCOS President