IU loses former professor Paul Pietsch

Former professor in the School of Optometry Paul A. Pietsch died Thursday after a long battle with end stage renal disease. He was 80.

Pietsch started his career at IU as an associate professor in 1970, said Douglas Freeman, director of technology and head of the School of Optometry Library and Pietsch’s closest friend. While at IU, Freeman said Pietsch had many positions.

From 1975 to 1983 Pietsch was the chairperson for the Department of Basic Health Sciences for the School of Optometry, Freeman said. In 1978 Pietsch became a full-time professor until he retired from teaching in 1994.

While at IU, Pietsch was not only a professor for the optometry school, but he also became an adjunct professor of anatomy for the Medical Sciences Program in 1980 and taught there while continuing his teaching in the optometry school, Freeman said.

Sarita Soni, interim dean of the School of Optometry, said Pietsch first came to IU when the boundaries of optometry were expanding. Before the 1970s, Soni said, the field of optometry was mainly focused on vision correction.

Pietsch was part of the movement to teach the biological side of optometry, she said, and expanded his research in regeneration and the relationship between the brain and the mind.

“Paul was a big part in expanding the curriculum,” she said.

Instead of just focusing on how to correct vision problems, Pietsch taught about how the eye ages and the biology of the eye, Soni said. Pietsch taught classes such as neuro-anatomy, microscopic anatomy and cell biology.

Soni said even after Pietsch retired he continued to be involved in the optometry school. She said he continued to come into the office everyday and help graduate students and other professors until his illness made it impossible.

Soni said she had known Pietsch throughout her entire career at IU and he soon became a mentor to her.

“He was an amazing person and one of the kindest faculty I have ever worked with,” she said.

Freeman said Pietsch was the author of nearly 100 publications and received numerous awards, including 12 for outstanding teaching and had the Paul Pietsch Scholarship Award made in his honor.

Besides being an IU professor, Pietsch served in the United States Army in 1946, where his love for teaching flourished when he taught English to Japanese students.

After receiving his GED, Pietsch pursued his higher education obtaining a bachelor’s degree in zoology and a Ph.D. in anatomy.

“We are really going to miss Dr. Pietsch,” Soni said. “He was a great part of the optometry school.”