Marvin Kwitko

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Marvin Leo Kwitko (March 3, 1931 – August 20, 2002) was a Canadian eye surgeon who helped transform cataract and laser eye surgery. He was the first in Canada to insert intraocular lens implants during cataract surgery in 1967 and the first in Canada to perform radial keratotomy in 1979. He taught at McGill University and was Chief of Ophthalmology at St. Mary’s Hospital in Montreal. He founded the Canadian Implant Society and served as its president for 20 years. In 2002 he was knighted in the Most Venerable Order of St. John.

Kwitko was born in New York City to Louis Kwitko and Rose Gomberg and grew up in Brantford, Ontario. He attended Brantford Collegiate High School and the University of Western Ontario, earning a BA in English (1955), an MD (1956), and a master’s in Pharmacology (1958). He trained at the Washington, D.C. Hospital Center. He wrote six ophthalmology books, including Pseudophakia: Current Trends and Concepts (1980), one of the first major texts on intraocular lenses. He was married to Alicja Zakrzewski and had four children and four grandchildren. He died in Montreal in 2002 at age 71.