Dr. William C. Gordon

He was born Nov. 19, 1946 in Jamestown, NY, the son of William C. Gordon and Ruth McCrea Gordon.

Bill grew up in Lakewood, NY. He attended Southwestern Central School, class of 1964, and graduated from SUNY Jamestown Community College with an Associate in Science degree. He received his Masters degree in Zoology at SUNY Fredonia, and his Ph.D from the University of South Florida at Tampa. He then worked at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, as a postdoctoral fellow. Following postdoctoral work in Houston he took a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. In 1987 he moved to New Orleans and joined Louisiana State University Medical Center conducting research on vision.

Bill worked at the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans as an ophthalmology research professor until shortly before his death. His significant scientific research included diabetic macular degeneration and he published dozens of scholarly articles on the subject in peer reviewed scientific journals.

In 2004 he was promoted to Associate Professor of Research, Ophthalmology and Neuroscience at LSUMC. In 2006 he was named a distinguished alumnus by Jamestown Community College.

His interests outside ophthalmology varied. He had a particular fondness for reading, astronomy, and archaeology. Bill was one of the citizen archaeologists who participated in the rescue archaeology work during the construction of the Kinzua Dam and Kinzua Reservoir. He also built his own telescope, and collected books. From 1966 to 1970 he was the director of the planetarium at SUNY Fredonia.

Bill was proud of his family’s Scottish ancestry and enjoyed reading about Clan Gordon. He was an artist and a calligrapher. He was interested in outdoor survival skills and made knives. Bill was a skilled skeet shooter, competing in several competitions in Louisiana. He had a terrific sense of humor and was always ready with a pun or joke.

Bill was preceded in death by his parents, both of whom passed away in Lakewood, NY, and his wife, Elizabeth Howkins Tarkington Gordon. He is survived by a brother, Robert Gordon (Annmarie) of Scottsdale, AZ; a sister, Susan Gordon-Brainard (Len Brainard) of Conewango Valley, NY; two children, Geoff Gordon (Rachel) of Baltimore, MD, and Michelle (Michael) Marcellino of Mount Airy, MD; a stepson, Matthew Tarkington of Telluride, CO; five grandchildren; and two nieces and a nephew.

Memorials may be made to a charity of reader’s choice. The family is not hosting visitation or services. A private burial will be held at a later date.