toRacingsuccess

RICHARD DUROCHER, OD

’96, who runs a seven-location optometric practice in and around Nashville, Tennessee, says optometry isn’t all that different from his hobby: sports car racing.

“There’s a lot of time and preparation that goes into a very short time on the race track,” Dr. Durocher says. “When you do well on the track, you know you’ve done well in the preparations. Practicing optometry is the same way. To have great outcomes, there’s a lot of work to make that endpoint mature.”

Dr. Durocher — perhaps the only optometrist actively competing in professional motorsports — has always loved cars, and even supported himself through college by building racing engines. Then cars took a backseat to optometry.

“[Cars were] something I kept in the background because as someone trying to become a doctor that was probably frowned upon and considered not as studious,” Dr. Durocher says. “But I continued to have that passion.”

About a decade ago, Durocher began wheel-to-wheel racing on weekends. The 2023 season is his fifth racing at the professional level.

Dr. Durocher competes in the North American Radical Cup, a support series for IndyCar that takes place in the United States and Canada over about eight weekends every year. Each mixed-class sports car endurance race lasts about 45 minutes, pitting manufacturers against each other in a competition that tests cars’ reliability and durability.

Dr. Durocher, who previously ran his own team, signed this year with a professional team that maintains his vehicle, a Radical SR3 race car, so he can focus on driving.

Considered a “gentleman driver” because he’s over 50, Dr. Durocher says racing is a hobby for him and many of his competitors, most of whom are leaders in the business world.

“It’s an outlet,” he says, “but we all love competing, no matter what we’re doing.”

Dr. Durocher also remains a contender in the world of optometry. He’s chief executive of his optometric practice and continues to see patients in the clinic. The busy schedule doesn’t faze Durocher. “I love going at a fast pace,” he says.

Dr. Durocher is also immediate past president of SECO, having started his tenure during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When you’re president of an organization that brings people together in a time when bringing people together is a challenge,” he says, “it was challenging, but very rewarding.”

Dr. Durocher’s involvement with SECO began when he was an optometrist-in-training at SCO, where Dr. Glen Steele, ’69, and the late Dr. Ralph Parkansky were among his most influential professors.

“I started serving the profession when I was a student,” Dr. Durocher says, “either student government, the local fraternity, an AOA student chapter. SECO was one of those things we always looked forward to.”

Durocher is happy with his career trajectory — both on the race track and in the exam room. “It’s been a very special journey,” he says. “There’s nothing I would have done any differently.”

SECO 2023 returned to Atlanta this year for its 100th annual meeting. Alumni attended SCO’s annual reception, visited the college’s booth in the Exhibit Hall, and even enjoyed a pop-up coffee event.

Congratulations to all our alumni who represented their alma mater well, including outgoing SECO President CHRISTINE COOK , OD ’98. Several alumni were honored, including:

• WILLIAM REYNOLDS, OD ’85, OD of the South

• MAX RAYNOR, OD ’85, President’s Award

• ROSALIND OVERTON-SMITH, OD ’76, Distinguished Service Award.

’15, and Michael Lam, OD ’15 8 Pete Smith, OD ’74, Rosalind Overton-Smith, OD ’76, and their sons 9 Stuart Thomas, OD ’84 10 Matt Jones, OD ’09, and Patricia Westfall, OD ’99

11 Patience Long, Glen Steele, OD ’69, and Emily Eisenhower, OD ’17 12 Peter Davis, OD ’87, Michael Davis, OD ’87, Kevin Davis OD ’16 13 Lewis Reich, OD, PhD, and Chris Wroten, OD ’02

14 Barry Winston, OD ’74, and Annette Winston 15 Beth Fisher and Blake Rust, OD ’11 16 Patricia Walker, OD, and Jim Venable, OD ’89 17 Kendra Reed, Steven Reed, OD ’95, and Joe Hauser 18 Outgoing SECO President Christine Cook, OD ’98, and Vice President Horace Deal, OD ’97. 19 Megan Elkins, OD ’10 20 1996 classmates Drs. Chan Webster, Julie Caldwell, Chad Carter, and Jason Duncan 21 Brittany Tounsel Wright, OD ’15 22 Martha Rosemore Morrow, OD ’74, Joel Byars, OD ’63, and Andrea Thau, OD 23 2021 classmates reunite