Dr. H. Dwight Cavanagh, who retired late last year after working almost three decades at UT Southwestern, has been named the Department of Ophthalmology’s first Professor Emeritus.

Dr. Cavanagh came to UT Southwestern in 1991 as a Professor of Ophthalmology and Vice Chair of the Department. He later held the Dr. W. Maxwell Thomas Chair in Ophthalmology and was Medical Director and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at what was then Zale Lipshy University Hospital from 1997 through 2005.   

He remains a Medical Director at UTSW’s Transplant Services Center, a tissue bank that processes and stores corneas and other tissues for transplantation.

Dr. Cavanagh said he will also continue to mentor early career faculty in the Ophthalmology Department.

Dr. James McCulley, Chair of Ophthalmology, recruited Dr. Cavanagh, whom he had studied with when they were both fellows at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary of Harvard Medical School in the 1970s. At the time, Dr. Cavanagh was a Professor of Ophthalmology at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

“We are extremely grateful for the many years of outstanding patient care, laboratory research, administrative service, and teaching that Dwight contributed to the Department,” said Dr. McCulley.

Specializing in corneal and external diseases of the eye, Dr. Cavanagh combined research with patient care. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1965, then studied under Nobel Prize-winning Professor Dr. George Wald at Harvard University, earning a Ph.D. in biology in 1972.

During his career, Dr. Cavanagh published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and served as editor-in-chief of both Eye & Contact Lens: Science and Clinical Practice and Cornea.

In 2009, he received the prestigious Castroviejo Medal, one of the world’s top ophthalmology prizes. Ten years later, he received the R. Townley Paton Award, the Eye Bank Association of America’s highest honor for corneal physicians. He also was honored by the Southwestern Medical Foundation that year with creation of a Corneal Disease and Transplantation Lectureship in his name.

The Atlanta native said he was inspired to go into science after the 1957 launch of Sputnik, the Soviet Union’s first satellite, while he was in high school.

Dr. Cavanagh entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, initially thinking he would be a physicist, but soon gravitated to biology and medicine instead. “I really liked the idea of going to medical school and being a scientist-clinician,” he said.

Arriving at UT Southwestern, with its depth of excellence, felt like coming home, he said.

“Through the years, I had the privilege of being around some really outstanding clinicians at Harvard, Hopkins, and here,” he said.

Working at UT Southwestern “was a lot of fun,” he said recently. “We did a lot of good in the world and we trained a lot of really good people around the world.”