John Corboy, M.D. founded the prestigious Hawaiian Eye Center. He had nine offices across the state to serve all of Hawai’i, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. To all he gave the same VIP care, including a flight to O’ahu, a limo waiting at the airport, and a place to stay the night after surgery.
Dr. Corboy also founded the Royal Hawaiian Eye Meeting (RHEM). The RHEM is still the third largest eye meeting in the country and hosts doctors from all over the world. This was the start of the Hawaiian Eye Foundation’s commitment to education because by sharing best practices and modern techniques, the best care can be provided. Dr. Corboy used the funds from the RHEM to begin humanitarian missions. The Hawaiian Eye Foundation (HEF) was born in Tonga.
Thanks to Dr. Corboy’s leadership and passion, we proudly serve, each year, over 24 worldwide locations to help end cataract blindness. Since 1984, Hawaiian Eye Foundation has provided free eye care to nearly 200,000 patients around the world!
Dr. Corboy is former Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine, and author of The Retinoscopy Book (Slack, Inc.), and 60 @ 60: Things that can happen to your body and what you can do about them (Simpler Life Press), a portion of the sale of which supports HEF (www.60@60.com)
For the past decade, Dr. Corboy has donated his services full-time to volunteer programs of HEF, as well as Junior Achievement, BODIES…the Exhibition, and various substance abuse programs. He was awarded the Lions’ Melvin Jones Fellowship, and numerous humanitarian and volunteer awards. Most recently he was the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from Pacific Edge Magazine in Honolulu, HI.
2014 Receiving the Medal of Honor from the People’s Republic of VietNam
In 2014, Dr. Corboy received a Medal of Honor from the People’s Republic of VietNam for his dedication to Vietnamese ophthalmology.Dr. Corboy is continually active, serving on the Hawai’i Medical Advisory Board. He frequents international missions, science fairs, free local vision screenings and speaks at many schools. He is an honorary member of the South African Ophthalmology Society and was a guest lecturer at the biggest ophthalmology conference in Africa in July 2017 and 2019.
Among his many distinguished awards, Dr. Corboy is a recipient of the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. The Melvin Jones Fellowship (MJF) Award is the highest recognition from the Lions Clubs International Foundation being given to members who have rendered outstanding community services.
In 2018, Dr. Corboy received the Top Doctors of America recognition, as well as Pacific Edge Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the Award for the People’s Health, National Eye Health, Cambodia; presented in Phnom Pehn, Cambodia October 2018, by Dr. Ngy Meng, Chief of the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital.
He will receive the 2019 Humanitarian Award from the University of Illinois at Chicago Alumni Association (UICAA) in October 2019.
2018 Top Doctors of America Award
Pacific Edge Magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award Gala
