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Dr. Morrison was eager to have the patents in order to continue his own work with soft contact lenses, but he was forced to share them with a group called the National Patent Development Corporation (NPDC).The NPDC bought out Morrison’s share soon thereafter and eventually licensed the technology to Bausch & Lomb, which refined it and brought the first soft hydrogel contact lens, the Soflens (polymacon), to market in 1971. The FDA decided the lens was a drug, which created a major hurdle for B&L. Once past that hurdle, however, the company enjoyed a three-year monopoly on soft contact lenses in the U.S., during which time it dominated the marketplace and PMMA became nearly obsolete.addition to serving as the bridge between Otto Wichterle and the West, Dr. Morrison was a skilledcontact lens fitter who truly had one of the firstoptometric practices to specialize in the young field of contact lenses. He became known as the eye doctor ofthe rich and famous, treating Hollywood stars androyalty, and once received a Rolls Roycerom Queen Juliana of the Netherlands as payment forhis services. More than 40 years later, he still drives that8 | car sometimes.Dr. Bob has shown how much one person can contribute to the world during a lifetime, and how much fun and adventure he can experience while doingit,” said Dick Thornburgh, former U.S. Attorney General, former Governor of Pennsylvania, and a longtime patient of Morrison’s.Dr. Morrison enjoyed a long career treating patients, lecturing and teaching. He recently published a book about his life and career.4 “I wrote it for my grandchildren,” Dr. Morrison said. “I wanted to make sure they got the facts straight when they hear some of the tall tales about their grandfather.”All of the individuals described here were path-cutters, charting a difficult way in completely unknown territory. They laid the foundations for both rigid and soft contact lenses and established a role for contact lenses in refractive correction that is now taken for granted. But in some ways, they raised more questions than they answered: What were the oxygen requirements of the cornea? Was there a materialthat would be comfortable and healthy over the long term? How long could contact lenses be worn? How should they be fit? How did one manage a contact lens practice?In future installments of this series, we’ll look at the people and the companies that refined lens material and design, built the manufacturing capabilities to revolutionize the industry, educated their colleagues about fitting, marketing, and the oxygen requirements of the cornea, and built the first contact lens specialty practices.1. Mandell RB. Historical development. In: Mandell RB. Contact lens practice. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 1988:5-20.2. Kuwabara DM. History of the Cornea & Contact Lens Section, American Academy of Optometry website.3. Mertz GW. Development of contact lenses. In: Hamano, H and Kaufman H E. Corneal physiology and disposable contact lenses. Boston: Butterworth-Heineman, 1997:65-99.4. Knorr R, Kremer K. Man of Vision:
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