A History and the Past Presidents of the OSA Rochester Section
Content taken from Common Origins of The Institute of Optics and the Optical Society of America by Susan Houde-Walter, A Jewel in the Crown, 2004
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw an explosion in the Applied Optics industry. Companies such as Carl Zeiss, Bausch and Lomb and Eastman Kodak realized the great need and potential for optics as cameras, spectacles and medical instruments advanced in technology. With the start of World War I in 1914, the young optics companies in the U.S. were cut off from the German glass supply. The need for more knowledge in optical theory and more advanced instrument-making skills became imminent in the U.S.
On November 18, 1915, a few gentlemen met at the University of Rochester to form an optical society. It was named the Rochester Association for Advancement of Applied Optics. Within three weeks the society had written and adopted a constitution and by-laws and the first council was elected. The first regular meeting was held on Tuesday, January 4, 1916, and then on the first Tuesday of every month thereafter. This schedule is still followed today.
One month later, in February 1916, it was decided to plan a national optics society with the name Optical Society of America. The Journal of the Optical Society of America was the first order of business and on December 28, 1916, the first regular meeting of the OSA was held. At the same time, plans for founding an "Institute of Optics" were underway at the University of Rochester. It was suggested that the Institute of Optics should be intimately involved with the publication of the JOSA and the two have been closely linked ever since.
As the national optics society moved out of Rochester in 1916, a local chapter was created with heavy involvement from the local optics industry. It may be said that "you can take OSA out of Rochester, but you cannot take Rochester out of OSA."
Year | Name | Year | Name | Year | Name | Year | Name | |||
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1915 | Perley G. Nutting Eastman Kodak |
1943 | Fred W. Paul Univ. of Rochester |
1971 | Claude B. Smoyer Xerox Corporation |
1999 | Don Golini QED Technologies |
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1916 | Herman Kellner Bausch & Lomb |
1944 | F.W. Jobe Bausch & Lomb |
1972 |
Martin Dvorin Monroe Comm. College |
2000 |
Dave E. Smith Melles Griot |
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1917 | Elmer J. Bissell | 1945 | Charles D. Reid Eastman Kodak |
1973 |
Robert L. Lamberts Eastman Kodak |
2001 | Paul Dewa Corning Tropel |
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1918 | Frederick E. Wright | 1946 | Robert E. Hopkins Univ. of Rochester | 1974 | Paul G. Roetling Xerox Corporation |
2002 | Robert Hutchison In T'Hutch Ltd. |
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1919 | none | 1947 | Arthur F. Turner Bausch & Lomb |
1975 | Douglas C. Sinclair University of Rochester |
2003 |
Bill Castle Eastman Kodak |
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1920 | Loyd A. Jones Eastman Kodak |
1948 | John H. McLeod Eastman Kodak |
1976 | Edward M. Granger Eastman Kodak |
2004 |
David Berg Melles Griot |
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1921 | F. Fairbanks University of Rochester |
1949 | Ernest H. Greppin Wilmot Castle Co |
1977 | Vance J. Carpenter Xerox Corporation |
2005 | Paul Dumas QED Technologies |
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1922 | C.E.K. Mees Eastman Kodak |
1950 | James R. Benford Bausch & Lomb |
1978 | Robert J. Klimasewski Burleigh Instruments |
2006 |
Jim Zavislan Univ. of Rochester |
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1923 | Henry F. Kurtz Bausch & Lomb |
1950 | Harold R. Condit Eastman Kodak |
1979 | John F. Carson Rochester Inst. of Tech. |
2007 | Andrew Kulawiec Semrock |
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1924 | Rex B. Wilsey Eastman Kodak |
1952 | M. Parker Givens Univ. of Rochester |
1980 | Erwin Loewen Bausch & Lomb |
2008 | Thomas G. Brown Univ. of Rochester |
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1925 | John W. Forrest Bausch & Lomb |
1953 | David Richardson Bausch & Lomb |
1981 | James C. Owen Eastman Kodak |
2009 | Jennifer Kruschwitz JK Consulting |
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1926 | F.M. Bishop Eastman Kodak |
1954 | Walter R.J. Brown Eastman Kodak |
1982 | Keith T. Knox Xerox Corporation |
2010 | Rick Plympton Optimax Systems, Inc. |
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1927 | Scott Sterling Bausch & Lomb |
1955 | David Gilkeson Wollensak |
1983 | Jay Eastman Optel Systems |
2011 | Julie Bentley Univ. of Rochester |
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1928 | Fred E. Altman Eastman Kodak |
1956 | Oran Miller Eastman Kodak |
1984 | David MacAdam Univ. of Rochester |
2012 |
Chris Palmer |
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1929 | T.R. Wilkins Univ. of Rochester |
1957 | David L. Fridge Bausch & Lomb |
1985 | Dan Haas Eastman Kodak |
2013 | Damon Diehl Monroe Comm. College |
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1930 | L.V. Foster Bausch & Lomb |
1958 | David Harper Xerox |
1986 | William Gornall Burleigh Instruments |
2014 | Wade Cook ASE Optics |
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1931 | E.L. Schoen Eastman Kodak |
1959 | Robert M. Boynton University of Rochester |
1987 | M. John Buzawa Optics Technology, Inc. | 2015 | Jessica Nelson Optimax, Inc. |
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1932 | Rudolph Kingslake Univ. of Rochester |
1960 | Hilda G. Kingslake | 1988 | Medhi N. Araghi Holoteck Ltd. |
2016 | Jason E. Rama Richardson Gratings |
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1933 | Carl E. Bahn Bausch & Lomb |
1961 | Donald P. Feder Eastman Kodak |
1989 | David B. Kay Eastman Kodak |
2017 | Daniel Staloff, Corning | |||
1934 | Cyril J. Staud Eastman Kodak |
1962 | John L. Tupper Eastman Kodak |
1990 | G. Michael Morris Univ. of Rochester |
2018 | Ben Zwickl RIT |
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1935 | C.C. Nitchie Bausch & Lomb |
1963 | Joseph L. Rood Bausch & Lomb |
1991 | John Bruning GCA/Tropel Division |
2019 | David Compertore Lumetrics |
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1936 | L.A. DuBridge Univ. of Rochester |
1964 | Robert M. Blakney Univ. of Rochester |
1992 | Howard Smith Center for Optics Manufacturing |
2020 | KC Kamenecka JML |
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1937 | B. Noyes Taylor Instrument Co |
1965 | John D. Hayes Xerox Corporation |
1993 | Tom Bristow Chapman Instruments |
2021 | Filipp Ignatovich Clerio |
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1938 | A.A. Cook Bausch & Lomb |
1966 | Joseph H. Altman Eastman Kodak |
1994 | Alan Wertheimer Eastman Kodak |
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1939 | R.E. Burroughs Eastman Kodak |
1967 | Robert J. Potter Xerox Corporation |
1995 |
Peter Emmel Rochester Photonics Corp. |
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1940 | 1940
Brian O'Brien Univ. of Rochester |
1968 | Robert J. Meltzer Bausch & Lomb | 1996 | Dean Faklis PSC, Inc. | |||||
1941 | R. Bruce Horsfall Bausch & Lomb | 1969 | George C. Higgins Eastman Kodak | 1997 | Gene Kohlenberg Eastman Kodak | |||||
1942 | Julian H. Webb Eastman Kodak | 1970 | Brian J. Thompson Xerox Corporation | 1998 |
Paul McLaughlin Eastman Kodak |