Oh Denice, such sad news!
I remember Dennis with great fondness as intelligent, elegant, handsome,
professional, out-going, generous .... the whole package. And he was a great
downhill skier! Overall a lovely guy who mentored a number of us with
encouragement, kindness and that million dollar smile. He was deeply involved
in the OPS before his business demanded most of his attention and we benefitted
from his innovative ideas and hard work.
I know that you have been close through the years so I hope you can communicate
to Diana and Dennis that many of his OPS colleagues are sending positive
thoughts his way.
Your tribe is grieving with you,
P
________________________________
From: optimal-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [optimal-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of
Barsness, Denice [BarsneD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2018 12:11 PM
To: optimal@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [optimal] From Denice Barsness re Dennis Makes, CRA
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
