Mildred Weisenfeld
Encyclopedia
Mildred Mosler Weisenfeld (1921-Dec. 6, 1997) is the Brooklyn-born founder of national not-for-profit foundation the National Council to Combat Blindness in 1946, now known as Fight for Sight
, an organization based in New York City that provides initial funds to promising scientists early in their careers. For 50 years, Weisenfeld was a one-woman campaign to increase funding for eye research, despite losing her own vision and having no scientific training.
(RP). Although she completed high school and went on to Brooklyn College, her eyesight worsened and her treatment options were few despite visiting more than 100 specialists in the U.S. and Europe. Weisenfeld was surprised to find that most eye and vision funding went into care for the blind rather than treatments or research. As she continued to search for treatment, she was urged by many of the eye specialists to encourage funding of research for eye disease, which totaled just a few thousand annually around World War II. By age 23, her sight was completely lost.
In 1946, 10 years after she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, Weisenfeld founded the National Council to Combat Blindness (NCCB), New York, at age 25 with $8 and no office.
Addressing how other nonprofits focused on adjusting people to their condition of vision problems, Weisenfeld was quoted May 23, 1948, in the New York Mirror
as saying "something must be done beyond giving them a dog, a cane, or a Braille book. We must give those who need it the hope that science is actively probing the affliction robbing them of their sight." Weisenfeld herself never learned Braille or used a cane or a guide dog.
Known for her audacity (friends would call it chutzpah), Weisenfeld helped put vision research on the national agenda when she coordinated testimony on eye research before the House in 1949, which led Congress to recognize eye disease and create the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, and the 1968 establishment of the National Eye Institute
in the National Institutes of Health
.
Over the decades as Fight for Sight's executive director, Weisenfeld paid herself no salary (she lived on family money) and tirelessly worked six- or seven-day weeks to raise millions of dollars for research and launch the careers of many prominent vision researchers through Fight for Sight and its local women's leagues in New York (Manhattan; Brooklyn: Park Circle, Bensonhurst, Shorefront; Queens: North Shore, Seaside; Bronx, Long Island), Northern NJ, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Greater, Main Line, Cheltenham, and Northeast) and Florida (South Palm Beach, Hollywood, Delray, Deerfield Beach, Miami). Fight for Sight
celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2011.
, and later included Bob Hope
, Barbra Streisand
, Sammy Davis Junior, Stevie Wonder
, Liza Minnelli
, Earl Wilson (columnist)
, Harry Belafonte
, Ed Sullivan
, Fannie Hurst
, Pearl Bailey
, Mel Allen
, Peter Falk
, Yul Brynner
, Paul Anka
, Eartha Kitt
, Jackie Mason
, Tommy Smothers, Joe Frazier
, Jerry Stiller
, Carol Channing
, Tony Randall
, Peggy Lee
, and many others.
Along with blind Attorney General William E. Powers, Weisenfeld presented an original Norman Rockwell
painting to President Harry Truman on Sept. 19, 1950, as an honor for his signing of legislation aiding the blind.
Also in 1950, working with wealthy New York entrepreneur Mary Lasker
, Weisenfeld encouraged the addition of the word "blindness" to the founding title of The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Blindness (NINDB), now the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
.
According to the New York World-Telegram & Sun in a 1954 interview with Weisenfeld, $150 million was spent in the U.S. annually by private and public funds to support the blind, but just $1.35 million on eye research.
Albert G. Mosler, a Philadelphia businessman, contacted Fight for Sight after discovering that he was losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa and read about the organization in a newspaper. He soon met and married Weisenfeld in 1956, but they didn't have children. Mosler died 11 years later.
, who became honorary chairman of her organization, helped attract many notable celebrities for the annual "Lights On" fundraiser and donated $100,000 in 1960 to establish the Bob Hope Fight for Sight Fund.
Focusing partly on children, up to eight clinics carried the name of Weisenfeld's organization from combined donations exceeding $13 million. They were the Fight for Sight Children's Eye Centers in New York (the first in 1960 at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, then another with funding from billionaire Harry B. and Leona Helmsley
at Mount Sinai Hospital
in the mid-1990s), Miami (Bascom Palmer Eye Institute), two in Pittsburgh (Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
), Philadelphia (Wills Eye Hospital), and Newark, NJ (Eye Institute of New Jersey, UMDNJ-University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
).
and New York City Mayor John Lindsay
recognized Weisenfeld's work with congratulatory letters. In 1975, the Academy of Ophthalmology awarded Weisenfeld its first award given to a lay person, for her contributions to the field. The industry group ARVO (Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) established the Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology in 1986, to recognize individuals for scholarly contributions to clinical ophthalmology. She was named "International Woman of the Year" in 1993 by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England. On Fight for Sight's 50th anniversary, Weisenfeld received the Lighthouse Pisart Vision Award in 1996 for her leadership and accomplishments. In 2000, Columbia University's Harkness Eye Institute Children's Diagnostic Clinic was renamed the Fight for Sight/Mildred Weisenfeld Children's Diagnostic Clinic.
Fight for Sight was led by Weisenfeld for 50 years, until she fell into ill health in 1996. An avid smoker, Weisenfeld died a year later at age 76 from complications of lung cancer.
Fight for Sight (U.S.)
Fight for Sight is a nonprofit organization in the United States which funds medical research in vision and ophthalmology. It was formed in 1946 as the National Council to Combat Blindness , the first non-profit in the United States to fund vision research; 2011 marked its 65th anniversary.Based in...
, an organization based in New York City that provides initial funds to promising scientists early in their careers. For 50 years, Weisenfeld was a one-woman campaign to increase funding for eye research, despite losing her own vision and having no scientific training.
Background
At age 15, Weisenfeld began to lose her vision to degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosaRetinitis pigmentosa
Retinitis pigmentosa is a group of genetic eye conditions that leads to incurable blindness. In the progression of symptoms for RP, night blindness generally precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Many people with RP do not become legally blind until their 40s or 50s and retain some...
(RP). Although she completed high school and went on to Brooklyn College, her eyesight worsened and her treatment options were few despite visiting more than 100 specialists in the U.S. and Europe. Weisenfeld was surprised to find that most eye and vision funding went into care for the blind rather than treatments or research. As she continued to search for treatment, she was urged by many of the eye specialists to encourage funding of research for eye disease, which totaled just a few thousand annually around World War II. By age 23, her sight was completely lost.
In 1946, 10 years after she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, Weisenfeld founded the National Council to Combat Blindness (NCCB), New York, at age 25 with $8 and no office.
Addressing how other nonprofits focused on adjusting people to their condition of vision problems, Weisenfeld was quoted May 23, 1948, in the New York Mirror
New York Mirror
The New-York Mirror was a weekly newspaper published in New York City from 1823 to 1842, and again as a daily newspaper renamed The Evening Mirror from 1844 to 1898.-History:...
as saying "something must be done beyond giving them a dog, a cane, or a Braille book. We must give those who need it the hope that science is actively probing the affliction robbing them of their sight." Weisenfeld herself never learned Braille or used a cane or a guide dog.
Known for her audacity (friends would call it chutzpah), Weisenfeld helped put vision research on the national agenda when she coordinated testimony on eye research before the House in 1949, which led Congress to recognize eye disease and create the National Institute of Neurological Disease and Blindness, and the 1968 establishment of the National Eye Institute
National Eye Institute
The National Eye Institute is one of the US National Institutes of Health that was established in 1968. The mission of NEI is to prolong and protect the vision of the American people. The NEI conducts and performs research into treating and preventing diseases affecting the eye or vision....
in the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
.
Over the decades as Fight for Sight's executive director, Weisenfeld paid herself no salary (she lived on family money) and tirelessly worked six- or seven-day weeks to raise millions of dollars for research and launch the careers of many prominent vision researchers through Fight for Sight and its local women's leagues in New York (Manhattan; Brooklyn: Park Circle, Bensonhurst, Shorefront; Queens: North Shore, Seaside; Bronx, Long Island), Northern NJ, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: Greater, Main Line, Cheltenham, and Northeast) and Florida (South Palm Beach, Hollywood, Delray, Deerfield Beach, Miami). Fight for Sight
Fight for Sight
Fight for Sight is the UK’s leading charity dedicated to funding world-class research into the prevention and treatment of blindness and eye disease....
celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2011.
1950s
Weisenfeld was well connected with numerous celebrities and politicians to draw attention to her organization and its annual fundraiser the "Lights On" variety show from 1949 into the early 1990s, first led by Milton BerleMilton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, and later included Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Sammy Davis Junior, Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, Liza Minnelli
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
, Earl Wilson (columnist)
Earl Wilson (columnist)
Earl Wilson , born Harvey Earl Wilson, was an American journalist, gossip columnist and author, perhaps best known for his nationally syndicated column, It Happened Last Night....
, Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Ed Sullivan
Ed Sullivan
Edward Vincent "Ed" Sullivan was an American entertainment writer and television host, best known as the presenter of the TV variety show The Ed Sullivan Show. The show was broadcast from 1948 to 1971 , which made it one of the longest-running variety shows in U.S...
, Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst
Fannie Hurst was an American novelist. Although her books are not well remembered today, during her lifetime some of her more famous novels were Stardust , Lummox , A President is Born , Back Street , and Imitation of Life...
, Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
, Mel Allen
Mel Allen
Mel Allen was an American sportscaster, best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. During the peak of his career in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions...
, Peter Falk
Peter Falk
Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo...
, Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
, Paul Anka
Paul Anka
Paul Albert Anka, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and actor.Anka first became famous as a teen idol in the late 1950s and 1960s with hit songs like "Diana'", "Lonely Boy", and "Put Your Head on My Shoulder"...
, Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Mae Kitt was an American singer, actress, and cabaret star. She was perhaps best known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 hit recordings of "C'est Si Bon" and the enduring Christmas novelty smash "Santa Baby." Orson Welles once called her the "most exciting woman in the...
, Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason
Jackie Mason is an American stand-up comedian and movie actor.-Early life:Born Yacov Moshe Maza in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, he grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City....
, Tommy Smothers, Joe Frazier
Joe Frazier
Joseph William "Joe" Frazier , also known as Smokin' Joe, was an Olympic and Undisputed World Heavyweight boxing champion, whose professional career lasted from 1965 to 1976, with a one-fight comeback in 1981....
, Jerry Stiller
Jerry Stiller
Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...
, Carol Channing
Carol Channing
Carol Elaine Channing is an American singer, actress, and comedienne. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards , a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination...
, Tony Randall
Tony Randall
Tony Randall was a U.S. actor, comic, producer and director.-Early years:Randall was born Arthur Leonard Rosenberg to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer...
, Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee
Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...
, and many others.
Along with blind Attorney General William E. Powers, Weisenfeld presented an original Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
painting to President Harry Truman on Sept. 19, 1950, as an honor for his signing of legislation aiding the blind.
Also in 1950, working with wealthy New York entrepreneur Mary Lasker
Mary Lasker
Mary Woodard Lasker was an American health activist. She worked to raise funds for medical research, and founded the Lasker Foundation....
, Weisenfeld encouraged the addition of the word "blindness" to the founding title of The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Blindness (NINDB), now the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is a part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health . It conducts and funds research on brain and nervous system disorders and has a budget of just over US$1.5 billion...
.
According to the New York World-Telegram & Sun in a 1954 interview with Weisenfeld, $150 million was spent in the U.S. annually by private and public funds to support the blind, but just $1.35 million on eye research.
Albert G. Mosler, a Philadelphia businessman, contacted Fight for Sight after discovering that he was losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa and read about the organization in a newspaper. He soon met and married Weisenfeld in 1956, but they didn't have children. Mosler died 11 years later.
1960s
Bob HopeBob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...
, who became honorary chairman of her organization, helped attract many notable celebrities for the annual "Lights On" fundraiser and donated $100,000 in 1960 to establish the Bob Hope Fight for Sight Fund.
Focusing partly on children, up to eight clinics carried the name of Weisenfeld's organization from combined donations exceeding $13 million. They were the Fight for Sight Children's Eye Centers in New York (the first in 1960 at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, then another with funding from billionaire Harry B. and Leona Helmsley
Leona Helmsley
Leona Mindy Roberts Helmsley was an American businesswoman and real estate entrepreneur. She was a flamboyant personality and had a reputation for tyrannical behavior that earned her the nickname Queen of Mean...
at Mount Sinai Hospital
Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute
Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute is a hospital located at 4300 Alton Road in Miami Beach, Florida, and is the largest independent non-profit teaching hospital in the state. The institution was incorporated on March 11, 1946, and opened on its current location on Sunday, December...
in the mid-1990s), Miami (Bascom Palmer Eye Institute), two in Pittsburgh (Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
St. Christopher's Hospital for Children is a 189 bed non-sectarian children’s hospital located near Center City, Philadelphia. It is one of the oldest full-service hospitals in the United States totally dedicated to the care of children. St...
), Philadelphia (Wills Eye Hospital), and Newark, NJ (Eye Institute of New Jersey, UMDNJ-University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is the state-run health sciences institution of New Jersey, United States. It has eight distinct academic units...
).
Honors
Many honors were bestowed upon Weisenfeld in tribute to her lifelong work. In 1951, Weisenfeld was presented with the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for community service. On the 25th anniversary of Fight for Sight in 1971, President Richard NixonRichard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
and New York City Mayor John Lindsay
John Lindsay
John Vliet Lindsay was an American politician, lawyer and broadcaster who was a U.S. Congressman, Mayor of New York City, candidate for U.S...
recognized Weisenfeld's work with congratulatory letters. In 1975, the Academy of Ophthalmology awarded Weisenfeld its first award given to a lay person, for her contributions to the field. The industry group ARVO (Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) established the Weisenfeld Award for Excellence in Ophthalmology in 1986, to recognize individuals for scholarly contributions to clinical ophthalmology. She was named "International Woman of the Year" in 1993 by the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England. On Fight for Sight's 50th anniversary, Weisenfeld received the Lighthouse Pisart Vision Award in 1996 for her leadership and accomplishments. In 2000, Columbia University's Harkness Eye Institute Children's Diagnostic Clinic was renamed the Fight for Sight/Mildred Weisenfeld Children's Diagnostic Clinic.
Fight for Sight was led by Weisenfeld for 50 years, until she fell into ill health in 1996. An avid smoker, Weisenfeld died a year later at age 76 from complications of lung cancer.