The T. Boone Pickens Foundation, established by the late Texas energy entrepreneur and philanthropist, is donating $20 million to the Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins Medicine. The gift, originally announced in 2013, is one of the largest research donations in Wilmer’s history. It will fund vision-saving research and professorships.
Pickens’ interest in the treatment and research of eye conditions developed in the 1980s after his father’s diagnosis of macular degeneration, a progressive condition that disrupts the central field of vision and causes vision loss. At the time, no treatments existed to prevent decline of his father’s healthy vision.
Pickens later publicly disclosed his own battle with macular degeneration and sought treatment from Wilmer for both this condition and cataracts. His care team, which included Walter Stark and Neil Bressler, and which used the latest and most advanced treatments, was able to help Pickens retain most of his eyesight until his death in 2019 at the age of 91.
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