Tim Nichols
O.D., 1981
Optometrist, Clinic for Vision PC
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“Optometry is, I think, a very personal profession, and in a place like this you get to know your patients well. I have a regular patient who’s in his seventies; I also see his son; I see his mother, who’s 90-something; I see his kids and his kids’ kids. When people trust you to take care of their most precious sense, that’s really humbling, but it’s also very rewarding.”
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Birmingham native Tim Nichols was already married and had one child when he made the decision to pursue a graduate degree in health care, and he knew the importance of making a good career choice to provide for his family. Fortunately, he had the advice of Henry Hoffman, M.D., then the director of admissions for the UAB School of Medicine, to rely on as he made his decision. Hoffman directed Nichols toward optometry, and a long, rewarding relationship with both a school and a profession was born.
On his experiences at the UAB School of Optometry:
“Classes at the School of Optometry are small—only 40 students or so—so you get to know your fellow students really well, and you continue to see them once you’ve graduated because you’re all going to the same meetings. Some of the best friends that I could have ever asked for are people I met in those first few weeks in September 1977, and they’ve been my friends ever since. We’ve ‘been through the wars’ together, and it’s great to have friends like that to rely on.
“There were so many good people at the school who were very helpful to me, and many of them are still there. Dr. John Amos has served as a mentor for me throughout my life, and Dr. Larry Alexander was a great influence on my life as well. Jimmy Bartlett, Rodney Nowakowski, James Marbourg—they were all incredibly helpful to me throughout my career, and continue to be so.”
On balancing school and a growing family:
“I ended up having two more children during the course of optometry school, one of them about two weeks before I graduated. That’s not the recommended path, but it can be done.
“You never really realize how difficult a task it’s going to be until it’s over, but you just have to find a way to make it happen. And that was true for several folks in my School of Optometry class. One of my classmates and good friends was married, also had three children while he was in school, commanded a Marine Corps reserve unit, worked a couple of jobs. He wasn’t at the top of our class, but this year that friend is the president of the North Carolina optometric association. He’s a very accomplished man, and he’s an example of what you can do when you work hard and don’t let yourself give up.”
Nichols graduated from the School of Optometry in 1981 and almost immediately went up to Albertville, Alabama, to start his practice. In some ways, he says, practicing in a small town can be more challenging than practicing in a major urban area, because many of the responsibilities that would be handled by specialists in a big city are duties that Nichols must perform on his own. But he has nothing but praise for his hometown and the patients who have made him feel like a beloved part of the community.
On practicing in Marshall County:
“It’s been a great place to raise a family and make a home. Some of my patients, I know entire generations of their family, I know their history, I know how they’re tied into the community; I’ve seen some of these folks for the past 27 years. I see these folks in restaurants and at ballgames, I go to church with them, and their kids know my kids, and every day I’m reminded of all these things that tie everybody together. I really value these people, and I’m privileged to take care of them.”
These days, Nichols is giving back not only to his community but also to the entire state of Alabama: He is president-elect of the Alabama Optometric Association, one of the most active state optometry groups in the country, and secretary-treasurer of the UAB Optometry Alumni Association. He also serves on the advisory board for Vision America of Birmingham. Leadership roles in such organizations are important, he says, because these groups have made a real difference in the way optometry is practiced in Alabama—and the impact it’s had on the state’s citizens.
On working with state professional organizations:
“When I graduated, optometry was just beginning to emerge as a primary-care health specialty, moving from simply providing eyeglasses to truly being a profession that people turn to for the care of their sight. We were not recognized as doctors by Medicare when I graduated; we’ve gained that recognition since then. Another big milestone for optometry, at least in this state, was the passage of a bill that allowed us to prescribe eye medications for patients who had eye-health conditions or injuries. All of that has taken place in the last 27 years, and optometry’s still changing a great deal. What it will look like in the next decade or the one after remains to be seen, but it’s exciting to have a voice and hopefully leave for future generations of optometrists a profession that’s in better shape than it was when I started. I feel very committed toward that goal."
On “paying it forward”:
“The UAB School of Optometry has a well-earned reputation as one of the stellar optometry schools in the nation, if not the premier school—and it’s because its founding optometrists had the foresight and desire to press their mission in the state legislature. Some of the people who did that were great optometrists whom I’ve had the privilege of knowing, and I’ve benefited because of their work. It would be wonderful if I could provide a similar benefit to others.
It’s that whole ‘pay-it-forward’ mentality. I mentioned this to an old college roommate of mine not too long ago. I said, ‘I’ve got this new position with the optometric association,’ and he said, ‘Why are you doing that? Shouldn’t you be kicking back and relaxing at this point in your life—isn’t that what it’s all about, you do your work and then you relax?’ I don’t really see it that way. I am enjoying my life now because someone else worked when they could’ve relaxed, so I don’t want to drop the baton here. Let’s keep passing it on from generation to generation, and we’ll all run until we’ve accomplished all we can.”