Dr. Emery grew up on a small farm in Vermont. He attended the University of Vermont where he met his wife Juliet. After graduating from Yale University School of Medicine in 1966 he did residency and fellowship at The Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins, where he became a full-time faculty member. In 1971, he followed his colleague David Paton to the Cullen Eye Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he continued his career in academic ophthalmology for another 29 years.

David arranged for Jared to attend Charles Kelman’s first course in phacoemulsification at Manhattan Eye and Ear and Throat Hospital in May, 1972. After this course, Jared defined phaco safety margins with Dennis Landis using scanning electronmicroscopic studies of the corneal endothelium in animals undergoing phaco and studies of heat generation in the anterior chamber and cornea with various irrigation flows, ultrasonic power levels, and incision sizes. Satisfied with the safety of this radically new procedure that involved placing into the eye a probe vibrating at 40,000 cycles per second, Jared began using the procedure on his patients in July, 1972—it rapidly became his procedure of choice.

Viewed as an impartial academic proponent of phacoemulsification, Jared was able to work inside “the establishment” to help gain acceptance of what was widely considered to be a “rogue procedure” promoted by “buccaneer surgeons.” Beginning in 1974, Jared taught phaco to practicing ophthalmologists who attended three-day courses that included live surgical demonstrations on his patients using closed-circuit TV, and animal laboratory practice for the participants. Regular guest teachers included Jim Little, Guy Knolle, John Sheets, Don Ford, Bob Loftus, and Henry Mitchell. Forty courses over eight years trained about 1,000, or nearly 10%, of U.S. ophthalmologists.

Data collected in a 1974 survey study by Jared Emery and David Paton demonstrated for the Cataract-Phacoemulsification Committee of The American Academy of Ophthalmology that phacoemulsification was as effective in restoring vision in treatment of cataract as was the then-standard procedure of intracapsular extraction.

Jared organized and ran the Bienniel Welsh Cataract Surgical Congresses with the help of David Paton and Doug Koch. He co-authored or co-edited 8 books on cataract surgery, including a book called “Phacoemulsification and Aspiration of Cataracts”, co-authored with Dr. James Little and published in 1979.

Dr. Emery retired in 2000 and took Juliet “back home” to New England.

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