Double Vision may be a troubling eye disorder, but it’s also the clever theme for the Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute’s 10-year anniversary party. On April 22, staff, supporters and donors of the institute will celebrate its 10 years of success at a party featuring Sen. Dale Bumpers as the keynote speaker.

“Double Vision” was chosen as the theme for the party because two extraordinary women will be honored at the party. Those women – whose generous donations and visions helped make the institute what it is today – are the late Bernice Jones, whose original gift helped build the facility in 1993, and Pat Walker, who has given the institute large gifts to change the name of the Arkansas Center for Eye Research to the Pat & Willard Walker Eye Research Center and to add floors to the present building.

The Jones Eye Institute, a Center of Excellence at UAMS, was officially dedicated on April 8, 1994. This four-story, 50,000 square-foot facility houses the Department of Ophthalmology, the Pat & Willard Walker Eye Research Center, a chapel, a state-of-the-art eye clinic, a library, an auditorium, administrative and faculty offices and the Arkansas Lions Eye Bank and Laboratory – Arkansas’ only eye bank. The institute’s main mission is to fight blindness in Arkansas through patient care, education and research.

John P. Shock, M.D., director of the Jones Eye Institute and professor and chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology in the UAMS College of Medicine, joined the ophthalmology department 25 years ago and remembers its humble beginnings.

“There was only one full-time faculty member in the department, and the offices were located in an old chemistry laboratory,” Shock said. “Now, we have a staff of nearly 70 people and 16 full-time faculty members. Any success that we have experienced is due to our very strong and loyal staff and faculty, a wonderful advisory board and hundreds of donors led by Mrs. Bernice Jones and Mrs. Pat Walker.”

Shock said the annual patient visits to the institute now exceed 20,000 – a significant increase from 6,900 patient visits in 1980. The newest addition to the institute, he said, is the Department of Ophthalmic Technologies, where students can obtain a bachelor’s of science degree in ophthalmic technology and are eligible to become certified ophthalmic medical technologists.

Looking toward the next 10 years, Shock has plenty of goals for the Jones Eye Institute. Some of these goals include adding five floors to the facility and establishing a larger endowment. Shock said he also would like to bring in more specialists – two for each ophthalmic specialty – and continue to make the education and research programs even stronger.