Scheie, Harold G. (Harold Glendon), 1909-

Harold Scheie was born in Brookings County, South Dakota in 1909, the son of Lars T. Scheie and Ella Mae Ware Scheie. He was educated in the Warren, Minnesota Public School System; he attended the University of Minnesota receiving his B.S. degree in 1931 and his M.D. degree in 1936. He completed his Internship and Residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. In 1940 Scheie received a D.Sc. from the University of Pennsylvania. Scheie secured a position as Instructor and then Associate Professor of Ophthalmology in the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania, 1940-1942.

During World War II, Scheie served, with the other members of the Medical School, at the 31st Hospital Unit of the Army Medical Corps, located on the Ledo Road in the China, Burma, India Theatre. Scheie treated many patients but his most memorable patient was Lord Louis Mountbatten. Mountbatten had injured his eye in a jeep accident. Sheie's success in saving Mountbatten's vision resulted in a friendship that would last a lifetime.

After the war he returned to the Department of Ophthalmology in the Medical School. He remained at the University of Pennsylvania for the rest of his life. In 1964 Scheie encouraged the University to merge with Wills Eye Hospital. When the University declined, he began a massive fundraising effort for an independently financed eye institute. In 1972 the Scheie Eye Institute was dedicated. This was eventually to become affiliated first with Presbyterian Hospital, and then with the University of Pennsylvania. He retired from the practice in 1983 to devote his time to fundraising for the Institute.