Blog vol 3. 9. It all started in 1962, with Dr. Ron Watson
Dr. Ronald B. Watson, an alumnus of Burlington Central High School, graduated in 1962 from the College of Optometry, which was situated on St. George Street in Toronto. He started practice in his hometown with Dr. D.B. Freeman on 490 Brant Street. In the early sixties, they were the town’s only two optometrists.
In 1964, Dr. Watson went out on his own and started a practice at 377 Brant Street at Wellington Square Mall. Burlington in the sixties and seventies was a small town surrounded by market gardens and orchards.
In 1975 he decided to make the huge move out near Walker’s Line on Fairview Street, where there were still dirt roads and as Dr. Watson calls it, “cowpaths”. He stayed there for the next 27 years.
In 1976 Dr. Nancy Wilson joined him in the practice on the corner of Woodview Avenue and Fairview. Meanwhile, the town, once called Port Nelson, was slowly becoming a city. With the Fisher family orchards turned into a new Burlington Mall, paved roads turned into Fairview Street which now went out past Walker’s Line.
Dr. Watson practiced optometry and taught part-time at the optometry school which had relocated to the University of Waterloo. He also became a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, as he developed his clinical skills.
He did a great job of keeping up with the changing technologies and methods of practice. Many changes happened in eye care during the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. When I took over in 2002, no big update was necessary, the practice was up to speed and running beautifully. This is no small achievement. Kudos to Dr. Watson.
In 1987 he received his Optometric Doctor’s degree from Waterloo (and I might add, on that day, May 30th, I received my degree also from Waterloo, we like to joke that Dr. Watson and I walked on the same day).
That is where the story takes us, I met up with him through his Waterloo connections, and the rest is history.
