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UAMS Jones Eye Institute Mourns Death of Founding Director John Shock, M.D.

July 28, 2025 | The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) was saddened to learn of the July 9 death of John Paul Shock Jr., M.D., former chair of the Department of Ophthalmology in the College of Medicine and founding director of the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute.

“Dr. John Shock was incredibly committed to improving ophthalmologic care in Arkansas,” said UAMS Interim Chancellor C. Lowry Barnes, M.D. “More specifically, he was committed to UAMS. If there were a Mount Rushmore for UAMS, John is one of the giants in our history whose likeness would be carved into the mountain. The UAMS family mourns his loss but celebrates his life of extraordinary success. UAMS and Arkansas are better because of John Shock.”

“Dr. John Shock was a remarkable man and a great leader. He will be missed,” said Paul Phillips, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Jones Eye Institute director. “When he arrived in Little Rock in 1979, it was not commonly thought that an eye institute was possible or necessary. However, Dr. Shock’s vision, persistence and persuasiveness with physicians, administrators and donors enabled him to establish the Jones Eye Institute.

“From his arrival to the present time, the Jones Eye Institute has grown from providing excellent local care to Arkansans to its current state of internationally recognized clinical care, research and education of the future leaders of ophthalmology,” Phillips said. “I am grateful for Dr. Shock’s example of steadfast leadership and vision. He was very proud of the growth of this institute. On his shoulders, we will continue to move it forward so that his legacy will live on.”

Shock arrived at UAMS in 1979 to lead the ophthalmology department. At the time, Gissur Petursson, M.D., who had been acting as interim chair, was the only other faculty member. Under Shock’s leadership, the department increased from two to 27 full-time faculty members with patients increasing from 10,000 to 50,000 annually. During his 40-year career with UAMS, he served as interim dean of the College of Medicine from 2000-2002 and executive vice chancellor of UAMS from 2002-2009, among numerous other leadership positions on campus.

Shock is credited with securing the original $5.5 million gift from Bernice Jones, along with many other philanthropic gifts, to build the freestanding Jones Eye Institute, which opened in 1994. Later, Pat Walker gifted $15 million to build a five-floor addition. Shock also established essential programs for the institute, including the Arkansas Lions Eye Bank and Laboratory, the Pat and Willard Walker Eye Research Center and the Leland and Betty Tollett Retinal and Ocular Genetics Center.

“After spending time at other institutions before coming to UAMS in 1979, I felt there were things we could do here that I had seen elsewhere,” Shock said in 2010. “I saw the direction we needed to go and made the decision to methodically go about accomplishing it.”

Over the course of his career, Shock raised more than $60 million for the institute, which is now nationally recognized for its eye research. He helped fund multiple endowed chairs and was the inaugural recipient of the John P. Shock, M.D., Distinguished Chair in Ophthalmology. He stepped down as department chair and institute director in 2010.

Shock credited the leadership of then-Chancellor Harry Ward, M.D., who arrived on campus the same month he did, for providing the opportunity and the encouragement to build a culture of philanthropy at UAMS and for the vision of the expansive campus that exists today.

When he arrived at UAMS, Shock was already known for being one of the first to develop the ultrasonic cataract machine, which was among five patents he owned for his research. For more than four years after its development, Shock taught courses at the University of California, San Francisco on the uses of the technique to surgeons from around the world. Today, the machine is still the gold standard for removal of cataracts in the United States and worldwide.

Shock was born March 14, 1935, in Webster Springs, West Virginia. He graduated from Glenville High School in Glenville, West Virginia, and attended Glenville State College from 1953-1955. In 1959 he began a long and distinguished military career, receiving his undergraduate degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he served as cadet captain company commander. He attended airborne school, earning his parachute badge, and field artillery training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and Fort Bliss, Texas. In 1960 he was assigned to the 503rd Airborne Battle Group of the 82nd Airborne Division.

In 1965, Shock took a leave from the army to attend Duke University School of Medicine. He returned to active duty with an internship and residency in ophthalmology at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He completed a fellowship in retinal disease and surgery at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami.

Throughout his time in the army, Shock tended soldiers with severe eye trauma at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio and Letterman Army Hospital in San Francisco. He developed his phacofragmentation technique that revolutionized cataract surgery while still on active duty. Before his military retirement in 1979, he earned the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Award. In 2013, he was named to the Arkansas Military Veterans Hall of Fame.

Shock served multiple leadership positions for national ophthalmology organizations and was honored several times at UAMS throughout his career. In addition to being named a distinguished professor, he received the Chancellor’s Meritorious Service Award, the College of Medicine Distinguished Service Award, and in 2017 was the inaugural recipient of the Harry P. Ward, M.D., Visionary Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Jones Eye Institute has come a long way since its creation 31 years ago. It is nationally recognized for its research output and includes the state’s only eye bank and laboratory and only clinic to treat uveitis, a form of eye inflammation. Its four-year ophthalmology residency training program is the only one in Arkansas. More than 80% of Arkansas ophthalmologists graduated from the UAMS Department of Ophthalmology, which is closely tied to the institute.

These successes would not have been possible without Shock’s visionary leadership.

“Obviously philanthropy was key to our success, and I feel very lucky to have had an opportunity that helped transform the ophthalmology department,” Shock said in 2010. “Our long-term relationships with wonderful philanthropists with the same goal are what made the difference. I feel very blessed to have served at UAMS.”