Thank you for passing this sad news on Denice, he WAS the groundbreaker for our
profession, and also remember his enthusiasm and drive to push this so called
new medium “digital” upon us. He was a history maker to which all of us owe an
indebted gratitude bring us kicking and screaming out of the film age.
Anton
On 2 Oct 2018, at 3:41 am, Barsness, Denice <BarsneD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
It is with a heavy heart and extreme sadness I report that my dear friend
Dennis Makes will soon leave us for other realms unknown. He is resting
comfortably at home with Hospice Care for multiforme Glioblastoma. He has
elected to forgo aggressive intervention , a decision of which his wife and
family support.
Dennis served on the OPS BOD in the mid 80’s and was general chair of the
first Park City Utah midyear meetings.
His friends remember those meetings fondly as we were a much smaller group at
that time, without internet or cell phones, and thus, meetings were a way of
connecting with new and old friends and to share information available no
other convenient way.
I worked with Dennis and others in those early days with the Ophthalmic
Photography Workshops ( OPW ) which was a precursor to the development of OIS
( Ophthalmic Imaging Systems)
Those of us a bit grayer in the hair will remember the early days of
ophthalmic imaging and the rise of digitization of our craft. Building on
the shoulders of giants before them, Dennis Makes and Steve Verdooner brought
one of the first digital fundus cameras , the OIS DS1024 to market in 1989
and received a patent for this technology in 1990.
I first met Dennis in 1979 when he was an imager at the University of Tucson
and a rep for the AO Docustar! ( a Hand held fundus device utilizing
POLAROID! Film….)
I was a green, 22 year older imager with a broken fundus camera. I barely
knew what a roll of film was! An internal mirror was misaligned and thus all
of my images had extreme astigmatism. Dennis quickly diagnosed the problem,
fixed my old silver body Topcon TRC2!!!!! And my imaging problems were
resolved. That same year I found a wadded up piece of paper in the darkroom
advertising this thing called the “Ophthalmic Photographer’s Society”, with
Csaba Martonyi’s phone number on it. Like a human on an alien planet, I
learned there were others like us “out there” and lifelong mentoring, support
and friendship was born.
I have had the honor and the pleasure to call this man my friend for over 3
decades, as have some of you.
His wife Diana asks NOT to be contact directly during these difficult times.
Those that wish to get a message to her please work through me.
Much sadness, need my tribe at these times….
Denice Barsness, CRA, COMT, CDOS, FOPS
CPMC Dept of Ophthalmology/ The Eye Institute
Ophthalmic Diagnostic Services
711 Van Ness Avenue Suite 250
San Francisco CA 94109
415-600-5781
FAX 415-558-7011
