Family of Doctors See Eye to Eye on Specialty

Dr. Morriss Henry has witnessed ophthalmology history at least twice in his career — and then helped bring the latest in optical medicine to Northwest Arkansas.

He was among the first surgeons to operate using light rays and, later, to use lasers. Both techniques were used in Northwest Arkansas, thanks to Henry’s skill and to the generosity of local civic leaders who purchased the equipment necessary for those procedures.

As for his interest in ophthalmology, it just seems to run in the family. Henry, who established his Fayetteville practice more than 30 years ago, is the son of two ophthalmologists — and the father of two ophthalmologists, as well.

And, although he’s enjoyed a long and distinguished medical career, Henry hasn’t stopped there — he’s also a lawyer, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a former member of the Arkansas Legislature.

Henry’s first brush with history came while he was a resident at Harvard Medical School. Researchers there were developing a technique for retinal surgery. Henry — and ultimately his patients — benefited from that research. He later continued his education and experience with a stint in the U.S. Air Force.

That Air Force experience included an assignment in Germany, where a doctor had just perfected another surgical innovation: photo coagulation, a precursor of laser surgery.

“While I was stationed [in Germany] a doctor invented photo coagulation, and the Air Force trained me how to use it,” Henry recalls.

Photo coagulation, he explains, grew out of technology developed by the motion picture industry for 3-D projection.

Mike Todd, who may be better known as one of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands, needed a brighter light bulb to make his new invention, 3-D projection, come to life, Henry explains. He replaced the traditional bulbs in his projectors with a brighter version. It was this light source that the German professor used to create the new process.

“When I returned [to Northwest Arkansas], Washington Regional Medical Center bought a light coagulator because they knew I knew how to use it. For a long while, it was the only one in this part of the country,” Henry recalls.

That was 1964. Henry remembers it well because he cut short his honeymoon when the machine was delivered.

“I said, ‘Honey, I’ve got to get back and see this,'” Henry says. “It was a big toy.”

“We did come back two days early from our honeymoon,” recalls his wife, Ann. “It was fine with me because I had gotten sick in Mexico City.”

“One of the doctors who I had [photo coagulation] classes with in Germany went back and developed laser surgery, which is much easier to control,” he says.

In 1971, Henry flew to Palo Alto, Calif. to learn, firsthand, how to perform laser surgery. Upon his return, Springdale business leaders and philanthropists Harvey and Bernice Jones joined with another of that city’s prominent leaders, Joe Steele, to buy a laser for what was then called Springdale Memorial Hospital.

All in the family

Currently, Henry practices with his son, Paul, and with Dr. Carol Van Scyoc, both also ophthalmologists.

But, the Henry family history with ophthalmology dates to his parents, Dr. Murphey Henry and Dr. Louise Henry. The couple opened their practice, the Henry Eye Clinic, in Fort Smith in 1931.

When Morriss Henry set up his practice in Fayetteville in 1961, his parents moved to Fayetteville to join him in an office near the downtown square. Four years later, the family built a clinic at 204 S. East Ave., the same building the Henry Eye Clinic still uses.

Murphey and Louise Henry retired in 1981, leaving Morriss Henry to run the practice. Dr. Van Scyoc joined him in 1986 and, last fall, Henry’s son, Paul, joined the practice after completing medical school.

Paul Henry is the fourth generation to attend the University of Tennessee Medical School, following his father, grandparents and great-grandfather, who was a general practitioner. Morriss and Ann Henry also have a daughter, who is an ophthalmologist and who is married to an ophthalmologist. The couple practice medicine in Little Rock.

Other pursuits

Over the years, Morriss Henry has found ways to enhance his career. His interest in politics led him to the University of Arkansas Law School, where he eventually earned a law degree.

He ran for coroner in the early 1960s and later won a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives. Seventeen years later in 1984, Henry retired from the state senate.

Henry says his proudest accomplishment in the legislature was the preservation of the Hobbs Estate, a 11,664-acre tract that was formerly owned by a member of the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission. Henry worked with local banks, Gov. Bill Clinton, U.S. Sen. Kaneaster Hodges and the Nature Conservancy to keep the land from being developed privately. It is now owned by the state of Arkansas.

Morriss Henry is also an associate clinical professor of ophthalmology at the University of Arkansas College of Medicine, and serves on several boards. He is a member of the Hendrix College Board of Trustees. A Hendrix alumnus, Henry received a special Distinguished Alumnus Award from that institution’s alumni association in 1987.

His activities have brought Morriss Henry other honors as well – at least one of somewhat dubious distinction. Arkansas Times magazine named Henry to its list of the state’s “Top 10 Dull White Men” in the early 1990s.

Ann Henry says she considers that a compliment. “If you mean by ‘dull white males’ people who are responsible, and stick by their promises, and do the right thing, then I am really lucky to be married to a dull white man,” Ann Henry says. “You don’t make headlines when you live like that. … He believes that each person has a responsibility to live up to and beyond their potential.

“Any woman would be lucky to meet and marry a man like him. And I don’t consider him dull at all.”