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Andy Thliveris: Remember the Undergrads
IN DECEMBER 2022, ANDREW "ANDY" THLIVERIS BS’83 MADE A SPECIAL TRIP TO SALT LAKE CITY WITH HIS WIFE LAUREN. THEY JOINED THE SCHOOL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES IN A BELATED (DUE TO THE PANDEMIC) REMEMBRANCE OF K. GORDON LARK WHO HAD PASSED AWAY MORE THAN TWO-AND-A-HALF YEARS EARLIER IN APRIL 2020.
Vice Chair and Ophthalmology Residency Training Program Director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Thliveris, until his retirement in September, was also Chief of Ophthalmology at the W.S. Middleton VA Hospital and holds the rank of Professor at the School of Medicine in Madison. At the event Thliveris remembered that as an undergraduate he worked in the Lark Lab for five years and that Lark, the first department chair of Biology, had a profound impact on him. “He changed my life,” reported Thliveris whose main message to the faculty and friends who had gathered was “Remember the undergraduate students.”
Thliveris also surprised many by announcing that through his affiliation with the Carl & Mary Ann Berg Charitable Remainder Trust he had arranged to fully fund the K. Gordon Lark Endowed Chair. The Lark fund was established in 2017, followed in July 2022 with a campaign to “reboot.” The ambition was to achieve the level of endowed professorship through an anonymous, matching donation of $250,000. But with Thliveris’s brokered gift—added to many others from generous individual donors—the Lark Endowment was elevated to the more prestigious level of endowed chair.
With his characteristic humor, Thliveris was eager to recall his time in Lark’s Lab. He confessed to being that “pesky, nerdy undergrad—highmaintenance—known to call Gordon at 11 pm on several occasions, [until] finally, Gordon, then speaking to his post-doc Paul Keim, [said], ‘You’ve got to get this guy under control because I have no idea what the hell I told him last night.’”
Clearly, Thliveris's sojourn at the U as an undergraduate where he majored in biology as well as geology and geophysics, and later attended the U’s medical school where he earned his MD, prepared him well. Following his ophthalmology residency at Wisconsin in 1998, he was a postdoctoral research fellow as a launch to his auspicious 28-year career. After joining the faculty in 2000, he took on the position of Veterans Affairs Hospital service chief and later, in 2014, vice chair of resident education and residency director— roles he held until his retirement and during which time he trained countless physicians, including many of the department’s own faculty.
At the announcement of his retirement, Thliveris said, “Our residents are beyond amazing, and the dedication from the faculty to our program has made short work for our education team. We have a very proud tradition here and are poised to continue for generations to come.” In hearing the news, many in Wisconsin responded with memories of his meticulous teaching, patience, wisdom, and, of course, his delightful sense of humor.
Thliveris will also be remembered for his work as director of the department’s cataract extraction phacoemulsification course. In this three-year progressive course, medical and veterinary ophthalmology residents, UW and visiting medical students, and pre-residency fellows from around the country learn the latest cataract surgical techniques.
To recognize Thliveris’s lasting legacy, the department dedicated its new Surgical Skills Training Facility in his honor. The new space, which expands the department’s training capacity by providing 10 training pods, each outfitted with state-of-theart equipment, will be instrumental in training the next generation of eyecare specialists. “While the decision to retire was a very emotional one,” says Thliveris. “It comforts me greatly to know that I am leaving things in such capable hands. Full steam ahead.”
Whatever Gordon Lark said during those 11 pm phone calls to Andy Thliveris must have been memorable.
And now with the K. Gordon Lark Endowed Chair poised to announce its first recipient soon, the undergraduate has made sure the legacy of the founder of the School of Biological Sciences will continue. <
Read more about Dr. Thliveris's retirement on the UW-Madison website from which some of this article was taken.
