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Honorary Chairmen

Honorary Chairperson, Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand.

Honorary Chairperson, Alfred Sommer, MD, Professor of Ophthalmology, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University; Dean of the School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, USA.

Background on Honorary Chairmen

Honorary Chairperson, Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919-2008

A great friend to the Himalayan Cataract Project and to its founding directors, Sir Edmund Hillary served as an Honorary Chairman for many years. Co-Director Dr. Geoff Tabin stated that Hillary’s work as a humanitarian, including both his direct work and the work he inspired in others, was his greatest accomplishment.

According to the Washington Post, Hillary told the Chicago Tribune in 1989 that although so many people identified him with his more extreme treks, "My life is not so much stepping on top of a peak that has never been stepped on before, or traveling to the South Pole, but, rather more, the building of schools and medical clinics for the very worthy people of the Himalayas."

Sir Edmund Hillary, mountain climber and humanitarian, repaid his debt of fame to the Himalayas by inaugurating a program of building schools, clinics, airstrips and bridges in Nepal that, with his still active support, have improved the lives of thousands of people over the four decades since he and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to stand on top of Mt. Everest. He was also a diplomat who represented his country as New Zealand’s High Commissioner in India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Bhutan. He received the Order of the Garter from the Queen, and today his smiling face appears on the New Zealand five-dollar bill.

A shy, strictly raised country boy who went into the family bee-keeping business in New Zealand, Hillary soon discovered his real love was for exploring the challenging climbing routes in his native Southern Alps. Hillary’s strength on ice and snow commended him to the legendary Eric Shipton, with whom he enjoyed some grueling and at times hair-raising Himalayan forays before being nominated by Shipton for the British 1953 attempt on Everest.

He writes in his book, "View from the Summit," that: "Achievements are important and I have reveled in a number of good adventures, but far more worthwhile are the tasks I have been able to carry out for my friends in the Himalayas. They too have been great challenges in a different way— building mountain airfields and schools, hospitals and clinics, and renewing remote Buddhist monasteries. These are the projects that I will always remember."
See also:

Honorary Chairperson, Alfred Sommer, MD

Dr. Al Sommer is Professor of Ophthalmology at Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and John Hopkins University School of Medicine, and former Director of the Dana Center for International Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins. He is a recipient of the Lasker Prize — the second highest biologic honor after the Nobel. He won the award for his work on vitamin A deficiency and blindness in poor children around the world. Sommer is currently coordinating an international effort to eliminate blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency.