The eyes have it! Denis and Sue looking to retire after 56 years

IT’S someone’s job to take a chunk of glass, or it used to be before they switched to CR-39 plastic lenses, and grind and polish the glass lens blank until it has the exact curvature to blend light for your vision.

They then trim and polish the edges of the lens to fit into your chosen frame and… voila!

You can see clearly once more.

For 56 years, that’s been the job of Denis O’Donnell, who with his wife Sue, has been running O’Donnell Optical in Wonthaggi and Cowes for more than four decades and before that as an optical fitter and servicer, which is what the trade used to be called, for more than half-a-century.

Next Thursday, however, they’re both riding off into the sunset, eyes firmly fixed on the horizon, for a well-earned retirement.

“Yeah, I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I’ll find something,” said Denis.

“I might even take up surfing again,” he said with a laugh.

That’s how it all started for Denis, after a four-year apprenticeship with Coles and Garrard Pty Ltd, the largest optometry firm in Melbourne, until it was sold to OPSM in 1988.

“Yeah, I had just turned 15 when I got the apprenticeship, and with a few mates, we used to come up here to surf.

“After a while, I thought, why not move down here. I practically lived here already anyway.

“I worked at a few grinding labs in Melbourne after leaving Coles and Garrard and continued to go back down to Melbourne from here, until I met Sue, and we decided to start up down here.

“I worked with Jackson and Lawry (optometrists) for a couple of years and then started working from home, doing grinding work for optometrists, growing it to 60 or more clients at one stage, all over Victoria and into South Australia and NSW until a couple of big firms came in and took most of that work.

“We’d moved into a shop in McBride Avenue by that time and we continued to do our own work, and for a few others, initially we did the work by hand in glass, but it became a lot easier with CR39 plastic and after we purchased an Optical Dynamics Lens Caster at a trade show in Las Vegas."

“You started out with a blank and worked out the calculations for the script, refining and polishing, adding bifocal and trifocal lenses as required to provide vision correction at multiple distances.

“I’ve been doing it since I was 15, now 71, so I’m probably a bit of a dinosaur now I guess.

“We mostly made glasses but at one stage I was also making lenses for a guy who made laptops for low-vision people and some specialty work for kids with epilepsy, cutting down their fits in some cases from 20-an-hour to one or two, a big improvement.

“We also made polarised glasses for fishermen, sending them throughout Australia and New Zealand, and coloured lenses for shooters.

“The main thing I’m going to miss is the people, what’s happening with their families, whose going on holidays, whose surfing. It’s going to be a bit of a void, but it’s been great.

“I’ve loved working in the community here, and we’ve often supported the clubs and organisations our clients are involved with,” said Denis.

He’s handing over the reins an optometrist, Harvey Johal, while also teaching his assistant in Wonthaggi, Tania Mason, how to grind the lenses and do all the repair work.

“It’s all happened pretty quickly. We’ll be all wrapped by this time next week.”

Not one for photos, Sue skipped out at the operative moment, by like Denis, she’s appreciative of the support from clients, including a 102-year-old Inverloch lady whose been getting glasses from them for over 40 years.

“We’ll miss it, but we’re looking forward to it at the same time.”

Between making a few trips and helping with the grandchildren, there’ll be plenty to do.