FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASECONTACT: Stephen Bunnell
(707) 815-9503
SEE International Remembers Founder Dr. Harry Brown
April 17th, 2017, Santa Barbara, CA - It is with heavy hearts that SEE International announces the passing of Harry S. Brown, M.D., FACS, on April 16th, at the age of 86. Dr. Brown, a renowned Santa Barbara ophthalmologist, founded SEE in 1974, as an organization dedicated to fighting avoidable blindness and restoring sight worldwide. As a young doctor, he worked as a visiting ophthalmologist in Johannesburg, South Africa; North Gujarat, India; and Kabul, Afghanistan. It was on this journey that Dr. Brown realized how badly the developing world needed an organization of volunteer doctors to perform free sight-restoring surgeries to people who lacked the money for, or access to, quality eye care. He subsequently moved to Santa Barbara in 1971, where he founded SEE and began a private practice.
Over the past 43 years, SEE International has restored sight to half a million people worldwide, and provided vision care to over 3.8 million men, women, and children, in more than 80 different countries. Thanks to Dr. Brown’s remarkable generosity and tenacity, millions of lives around the world have been transformed for the better.
“With Dr. Brown’s passing, I find myself reflecting on the amazing life of a great humanitarian, and the legacy of service that he leaves behind,” says SEE International President & CEO Randal Avolio. “Because of the organization he started so many years ago, half a million people today enjoy the gift of sight.”
# # #
About SEE International
SEE International is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization that provides medical, surgical, and educational services by volunteer ophthalmic surgeons with the primary objective of restoring sight to disadvantaged blind individuals worldwide. Since 1974, SEE has examined over 3.8 million men, women, and children, and performed nearly half a million sight-restoring surgeries.