Dr. Shaffer co-founded the Glaucoma Research Foundation in 1978. He was a pioneer in the field of glaucoma and a Clinical Professor Emeritus in Ophthalmology at University of California San Francisco, where he taught for a half century. His extensive writing on glaucoma includes over 90 articles and books.

Born January 18, 1912 in Meadville, Pennsylvania, Dr. Shaffer received his medical degree from Stanford University, and did his residency at Stanford Lane Hospital while the campus was still in San Francisco. In 1949, Dr. Shaffer established his first practice in San Francisco, which would soon become the leading glaucoma practice west of the Mississippi.

Dr. Shaffer’s proudest accomplishment was the establishment of the annual Shaffer Fellowship offering promising young doctors a year of personal training in the diagnosis and treatment of glaucoma. More than 40 Shaffer Fellows received this very personalized training.

With his two partners H. Dunbar Hoskins Jr., MD, and John Hetherington, Jr., MD (1930 – 2020), Dr. Shaffer founded the Glaucoma Research Foundation in 1978, which continues his legacy of helping those with glaucoma through education and the funding of research to find better therapies and ultimately a cure for glaucoma.

To learn more about our founder, Dr. Robert N. Shaffer, read his memoir online: ‘Robert N. Shaffer, MD at 90, An Oral History and Memoir’.