SEE International would like to honor and commemorate Trustee Emeritus and friend, Dr. George Primbs, who passed away recently on Jan. 7, 2024. Dr. Primbs was a key figure at SEE International since its inception in 1974, having served as a founding board member, chairman of the board, and as president and CEO until 2007.
During the early years of his ophthalmic career, Dr. Primbs traveled across North Africa to provide humanitarian eyecare services to communities in need. He later opened a private practice in Santa Barbara, where he also taught as a clinical professor at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. This is where he met Dr. Harry Brown, founder of SEE International, as his student resident, and the two began discussing how to take action against world blindness.
Inspired by Dr. Primbs’ work in North Africa, Dr. Brown spent a year travelling around the world to meet with medical directors in foreign countries to establish connections for future humanitarian eyecare initiatives. Upon Dr. Brown’s return to Santa Barbara, Dr. Primbs built an office above his practice where Dr. Brown could begin SEE International and treat patients in their local community. Dr. Primbs also got his local club, Downtown SB Host, to donate a large sum to get SEE International started. He subsequently hosted SEE’s Incorporation Meeting at La Cumbre Country Club.
On one of SEE’s first official international programs in Mexico, Dr. Primbs joined Dr. Brown in training local medical professionals and developing support packages at the local hospital. From then on, the two worked together to send teams to Mexico and the rest of the world.
Even after stepping down as president and CEO in 2007, Dr. Primbs remained active in SEE’s work and the health of his community.
As we mourn Dr. Primbs’ departure, we find solace in honoring his extraordinary accomplishments and applaud his legacy as a compassionate and generous individual who consistently demonstrated a profound concern for others throughout his life.
SEE International is a nonprofit, humanitarian organization that provides medical, surgical, and educational services to restore sight and make high-quality eyecare more accessible around the world and here at home. The organization has a network of over 650 volunteer ophthalmologists who help address preventable blindness by providing free sight-restoring surgeries and eyecare services to communities in need. Since 1974, SEE has served over five million individuals and performed over half a million sight-restoring surgeries worldwide. For more information, visit www.seeintl.org.