Hollows, Frederick Cossom

▪ 1994

      New Zealand-born Australian physician (b. April 9, 1929, Dunedin, N.Z.—d. Feb. 10, 1993, Sydney, Australia), was a leader in the campaign to combat eye diseases (especially trachoma) among Aboriginal peoples and cofounder of the Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS), which established a system of community clinics. Hollows was educated in New Zealand and at the Royal College of Ophthalmology in London. In 1965 he immigrated to Australia, where he accepted a professorship at the University of New South Wales. He soon learned that thousands of Aborigines were going blind from trachoma, a treatable eye disease brought on by poor hygiene and inferior sanitation. Despite official opposition, he developed an efficient, inexpensive cure for the disease, trained a team of specialists to take the treatment to those in need, and brought restored eye health to some 30,000 affected Aborigines. In 1971 Hollows was brought in as a consultant for the first AMS clinic in Sydney. He later set up similar programs in Nepal, Vietnam, and Eritrea (then part of Ethiopia). Hollows was named Australian of the Year in 1990 and was made an Officer of the Order of Australia the next year. The Hollows Foundation was established in 1992.

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