Edward Joseph Zobian

Dr. Edward J. Zobian, of 616 South Park Road, Wyomissing, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving family and many friends after a brief yet hard-fought illness on Wednesday, November 18, 2015. He was 75 years old.

Dr. Zobian was born in Philadelphia on February 13, 1940 to Grace and Joseph Zobian, joining two sisters, Diane and Doris. He graduated from Haverford College in 1962 and continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He married his first wife, Rose, in 1963 after completing his first year of medical school, then joining the U.S. Army after his third year. In his senior year Dr. Zobian was appointed to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and, upon his graduation in 1966, completed an internship at the Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco, CA.

Following that internship, Dr. Zobian served as a Battalion Surgeon with the United States Army's Nineteenth Combat Engineer Battalion in Vietnam. Here, he was decorated twice for heroism, receiving both the Bronze Star Medal and the Army Commendation Medal. After returning home in August 1968, he was promoted to the rank of Major, and assigned as Chief of the Department of Hospital Clinics at U.S. Kirk Army Hospital, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, MD.

In July 1970, Dr. Zobian began his ophthalmology residency at the Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. He became Chief Resident Surgeon during his senior year at Wills Eye and completed his training in June of 1973. During these residency years, the family lived in Brookhaven, PA and, in order to supplement his resident's salary to fully support his wife and three sons, Dr. Zobian also worked as an emergency room physician at Taylor Hospital, covered for local family practitioners on weekends, worked an evening a week at an ophthalmology office, and performed insurance physical examinations.

In August, 1973, Dr. Zobian began practicing ophthalmology with West Reading Ophthalmic Associates (now Eye Consultants of Pennsylvania) with a group consisting of three ophthalmologists with one office. Today, Eye Consultants of Pennsylvania has twelve ophthalmologists, nine optometrists, and four offices serving Berks, Schuylkill, and Montgomery Counties in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Zobian's specialty was cataract surgery. He was the innovator for intraocular lens implantation, small incision sutureless cataract surgery, and no-injection local anesthesia in his area of Pennsylvania and had performed over 20,000 cataract operations in his career. He was also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, was certified by the American Board of Ophthalmology, and was an attending surgeon at the Pennsylvania Eye and Ear Surgery Center in Wyomissing, the Reading Hospital and Medical Center, the Pottsville Hospital, and Physicians Care Surgical Hospital in Limerick, PA.

One of Dr. Zobian's great joys was traveling to the Philippine Islands to perform free eye surgeries on the country's indigent blind population. In 1988, Dr. Zobian's oldest son, Joseph, graduated from Haverford and joined the Peace Corps; Joseph was assigned to the Philippines and his father resolved to find an opportunity to serve as well. Thus began an annual volunteer commitment with the Free Rural Eye Care Clinic, an organization dedicated to supporting cataract surgical intervention to the developing world. In 2012 Dr. Zobian even had the great pleasure of operating there with his son, Joseph, who had also become an ophthalmic surgeon. With the exception of one year, Dr. Zobian traveled to the Philippines each January from 1989 to 2013, performing over 2200 free cataract extractions and lens implant operations.

Until his retirement in 2014 at the age of 74, Dr. Zobian continued to be an active presence in his practice: working full time, performing ophthalmic surgery, and taking the occasional night and hospital emergency call, constantly striving to learn new ideas and techniques in his field. In addition to practicing medicine (which he often referred to as his "favorite hobby"), Dr. Zobian also loved walking, gardening, skiing, scuba diving and photography, particularly underwater photography, a talent he honed for over twenty years.

Sadly, Dr. Zobian's first marriage ended in divorce after thirty-four years. However, he was soon blessed with love again and married his dear and loving wife, Barbara on December 18, 2004.

Dr. Zobian was also the glowingly proud father of four sons, Joseph, Matthew, Ted, and David. All four boys are Haverford College graduates. In addition to ophthalmologist Joseph, son Matthew is a vice president of Santander Bank in Wyomissing, Ted is an investment advisor and vice president at Morgan Stanley in Philadelphia, and his youngest son, David, is a pediatrician in Exeter, PA. He was also gifted with seven grandchildren ranging in age from 22 years to 19 months, all of whom he referred to as "the dessert of my life."

In an article to the Haverford College alumni magazine only a few years ago, Dr. Zobian wrote, "I have had sorrows, and I have had pain. I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death. I have no regrets. Overall, my life has been one of abundant joy. At 72 years of age, I have had the life I wanted. To quote Robert Frost: 'But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.' The Lord has been merciful to me and I am grateful to Him. I will walk in the house of the Lord forever."

In addition to being survived by his devoted and beloved wife, Barbara Jeanne Zobian, Dr. Zobian is survived by his four sons and three daughters-in-law: Dr. Joseph Michael Zobian and Lily Zobian of Ormond Beach, FL; Mr. Matthew Edward Zobian of Wyomissing, PA; Mr. Edward (Ted) John Zobian and Melanie Zobian of West Chester, PA; Dr. David Charles Zobian and Megan Souders-Zobian of Wyomissing, PA; seven grandchildren: John Edward Zobian, Michael William Zobian, Tess Xialei Zobian, Benjamin Souders Zobian, Jane Lillian Zobian, Edward (Teddy) Patrick Zobian and Charles Scott Zobian; two sisters and brothers-in-law, Doris Zobian Calian and Carnegie Calian and Diane DeMirjian and Charles DeMirjian and a great many nieces, nephews, cousins, and treasured friends.

A visitation will be held Friday, November 27, 2015, from 5 to 8 p.m. in Edward J. Kuhn Funeral Home, Inc., West Reading. Services will be held Saturday, November 28, 2015, at 11 a.m. in Trinity Lutheran Church, 527 Washington Street, Reading. In lieu of flowers, Dr. Zobian has requested donations be made to The Armenian Missionary Association of America, 31 W. Century Road, Paramus, NJ 07652, (201) 265-2607, www.amaa.org. Online condolences may be recorded at www.kuhnfuneralhome.com.