Robert Klark Graham

A eugenicist and businessman, Robert Klark Graham made millions by developing shatter-proof plastic eyeglass lenses, and later founded the Repository for Germinal Choice, a sperm bank for geniuses in the hope of implementing a eugenics program.

Graham was born on June 9, 1906 in Harbor Springs, Michigan to Dr. Frank and Ellen Klark Graham. He graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor of arts degree, and then received a bachelor of science degree in 1937 from Ohio State University, where he worked in the field of applied optics.

Following graduation, he worked for Bausch and Lomb Optical Co. He joined Univis Lens Co. in Dayton, Ohio, in 1940, which had begun research relating to plastic ophthalmic lenses. After the project was discontinued in 1946, Graham and three Univis technicians moved to Pasadena, Calif., establishing the Plastic Lens Co., which later became Armolite Lens Co., still one of the nation's leading producers of opthalmic lenses.

At the same time, he was developing a practice limited solely to contact lenses, what is believed to be the first private practice in the nation limited solely to contact lenses. He taught at the Southern California College of Optometry, serving as associated professor in charge of the contact lens and low vision courses and clinics at the college.

In addition to his work with Bausch and Lomb in the 1960s to develop the first soft contact lens, he also developed hard resin lenses. Because of his early efforts, more than 80 percent of the lenses dispensed in the United States today are made from lightweight plastic.

He is also credited with the introduction of a reflection-reducing coating for opthalmic lenses, the development of colorless ultraviolet absorbing lenses, the invention of the variable focus lens and the invention of the hybrid corneal lens.

In 1963, along with geneticist and Nobel prize winner Hermann Muller, he founded the Repository for Germinal Choice, which collects germinal material from outstandingly intelligent and healthy men.

Graham was the recipient of many awards, and was the author of "The Future of Man," and several editions of "Who's Who in the World" and "Who's Who in America."

He was a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, a member of the American Institute of Physics Professors, the Optical Society of America, the American Academy of Optometry, Mensa and Sigma Xi.

Source: Biographical Wiki