A CLEAR VIEW OF HOMETOWN SERVICE: Hope Optometrist Bill Coffee has Spent a Lifetime of Understated Service to Others
Dr. Bill Coffee may be best known in our humble city for bringing clarity to many who have issues seeing correctly.
In addition to a lifetime of dedication to his profession as an optometrist, he had a career of quietly serving numerous others through his civic work and responsibilities.
Coffee was born in Hope in 1948 to Clyde and Nell Coffee. Clyde was originally a travelling salesman before buying into a local store named Boswell’s, which was located next to Jack’s News Stand in downtown Hope. He next opened “Clyde’s Department Store” situated near the old Moore’s grocery, also downtown.
Young Bill was a student of Mrs. Mary’s kindergarten, a few years after a young, future U.S. President, also named Bill, attended.
Coffee attended Garland Elementary and even competed on their home-grown football team. “We played our games at noon between us, Paisley, Brookwood and another school,” Coffee laughs during a recent sit-down interview.
“We would play at lunch on Fridays and the whole school would turn out. It was in the days before we had little league,” he quickly recalls.
It was his introduction to scouting through his father who opened up a world of possibilities.
“I’d have to say my dad was one of my biggest influencers,” said Coffee. “He was a Cub Master with the Scouts and had a troop here before I was born. Therefore, I developed an interest in scouting and it became a big part of my life.
“They say join the Navy and see the world, but for me it was join the Scouts and see it too. I was able to take my first train ride all the way to Pennsylvania for the National Jamboree with people from all over the country,” Coffee continues. “We did a lot of camping and I had a great time.
“We learned a lot of independence through scouting. How to do things correctly and have fun doing them.”
“I got involved with the Order of the Arrow, after being elected by my troop,” Coffee recounts.
“It was like an honor society for Scouting, based on Indian lore. So, we did a lot of Indian (interpretive) dances which I loved. We made our own uniforms and that’s where I learned to sew,” he says with a laugh.
He ultimately achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and like his father became Scout Master many years later.
Coffee graduated from high school in 1966, then attended Ouachita Baptist studying Biology and Math. He wasn’t confused about what he wanted to do in life.
“I wanted to be an optometrist. I’d made that decision probably by junior high school.
“Early on I was having severe headaches and couldn’t read well. I was put in remedial reading and such. It was Dr. Lloyd Guerin, an optometrist here, who prescribed some reading glasses for me and solved that problem completely.”
After graduating high school he attended Ouachita for two years, taking up to 24 hours a semester to meet requirements for acceptance to Southern College of Optometry in Memphis.
A little fact that Coffee quietly leaves out was he graduated with honors from that optometry school.
This would be in 1972 when the U.S was still involved in the Vietnam conflict and many young men Coffee’s age were making life-changing decisions, choosing to serve their country.
Coffee was one of them.
“I joined the Navy and was on active duty my last year of school but when I graduated, I was assigned to the naval hospital at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina for three years.
“We had just gotten married. Dixie was in the first class of vision technicians and we met while I was in my last year of optometry school. Which was what a lot of the students in our classes eventually did too,” Coffee smiles.
A fun fact: The Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point was situated on 16,000 acres. It remains the home to the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing and the Navy’s Fleet Readiness Center-East – the largest industrial employer in eastern North Carolina.
“We were told we would be sent somewhere (isolated) where we would really get to know each other and boy did we,” he laughs. The little town of Havelock only had about 150 people besides the Air Force base.
“I’d been active with the local civilian optometrist in that area and Dixie was working for one in a little town nearby.
“I went to a lot of their meetings and wound up taking their state board exam. I believe there were approximately 180 who took the state board and I was one of 37 who passed.”
Remember that fact the next time you readers visit your optometrist. Your doctor had to pass that state board to become certified too. They didn’t just buy an eye chart and open the doors.
“We decided that even though we liked the Raleigh area and I even had a couple of offers there, Dixie said that we’d driven home too many times and she didn’t want to be away from mama any longer,” Coffee says with a smile.
And we are all better for it.
So, I returned to Arkansas and Dr. Lloyd Guerin’s father-in-law, who was the local optometrist at the time, retired and sold his practice to me,” Coffee concludes.
Coffee Vision was opened in 1975, completing a childhood dream.
Quickly, a young Dr. Coffee would find avenues of service in our midst. Serving God, and serving others locally and beyond.
“I got active in the church (FUMC) and Patti Manus of School of Hope found me,” Coffee says with a laugh because anyone who is a fan of Patti will understand what it means to be “found” by the ever-energetic Manus.
So, Coffee joined the School of Hope Board of Directors, helping write policy which opened doors for children (and now adults) with developmental disabilities. Joining him would be School of Hope cornerstones Carol Robinson and Arch Wylie.
“I spent probably 15 years on that board, which was a pleasure,” Coffee reflected.
“I joined the Kiwanis Club because their focus is on children,” he said. “That fit in with what I wanted to do.
“The Lions main cause is vision and I thought ‘I do enough of that, let me do something else,’” Coffee says.
He served two terms as president of the Optometric Association locally and 15 years on the State Optometry board.
Whew! What a career. Now is the perfect time to sit with heels kicked up in the recliner, right? Wrong.
“Since I have retired, I now work for Dixie, as she is the County Coordinator with “The Call”,” Coffee says.
‘The Call’ is a local non-profit organization that activates churches in our area to care for foster children, train the foster parents and volunteers in order to support the families in their work.
“We’ve been very fortunate that our community has contributed so much to help sponsor the families we serve,” he concluded.
“I have always enjoyed having a variety of things to do in this area but ‘The Call’ is something that Dixie really wanted to focus on and she inspired me to focus on it too.”
Coffee had the “vision” as a youngster and lived that life. Along the entire way, he served many, many others.
Whether it was as a young scout learning good citizenship, to serving thousands through his vision practice, to his civic work, and now serving those who are in desperate situations. That’s Dr. Coffee.
A life well lived. A life well-respected.
