WILMINGTON — Gary Neal Foulks, MD, FACS. Husband, father, and academic ophthalmologist. Dr. Foulks passed away on January 31, 2025 at Duke Hospital. He served on the Congregational Council of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Durham, NC and attended First Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, PA. He was a member of St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Harrods Creek, KY, assisting the work of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. After moving to Wilmington, NC he was a member of the St. James Episcopal Church where he joined the St. Joseph Guild. He was a leader in the Boy Scouts of America. Dr. Foulks was also a member of the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels.
A successful fly-fisherman and a long-term member of the Blue Ridge Eye Study Club and Trout Unlimited, Dr. Foulks supported numerous conservation associations. He enjoyed gardening and has a daylily named after him (Hemerocallis ‘Gary N. Foulks MD’). His family and friends know him as a caring, warm, welcoming, generous, humble, fun and loving person with a great smile. As a doctor he helped many patients and mentored and trained other doctors to do the same. With a quick wit for and true love of puns you might say he was excellent at both mending people and fly lines.
Born in Salt Lake City in 1944, Dr. Foulks was preceded by his parents James Neal Foulks and Ruth Elaine (Hultquist) Foulks. Dr. Foulks is survived by Nancy Simmons (Sims) Brockenbrough Foulks, his loving wife of over 56 years, 3 children Guy B. Foulks and his wife Debbie of Alexandria, VA, Beverley Foulks McGuire and her husband Michael of Wilmington, NC, and Heather Foulks Kolakowski and her husband Jeremy of Freeville, NY, and four grandchildren (Haley and Connor McGuire, Nathaniel and Madeleine Kolakowski). He is also survived by his 3 siblings Gayle Pierce, Connie Crandall, and Marc Foulks.
A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, Dr. Foulks was educated at Columbia College in the City of New York and graduated from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons with an MD degree in 1970. Following surgical internship at the University of California San Diego, he served as Lieutenant Commander in the Public Health Service. Following an ophthalmology residency at Duke University and a cornea/external disease fellowship at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary, he joined the faculty of Duke University School of Medicine. There he advanced to Professor of Ophthalmology with Tenure and taught for seventeen years. He served as Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh Eye and Ear Institute from 1996 until 2001 and as Director of Clinical Research until 2003. Moving to the University of Louisville School of Medicine, he served as the Arthur and Virginia Keeney Endowed Professor of Ophthalmology. At the Kentucky Lions Eye Center, he was director of cornea and external disease. He was Assistant Dean of Clinical Research for the University of Louisville School of Medicine until his retirement in 2010 when he became Emeritus Professor of Ophthalmology. He continued clinical work at the Louisville Veterans Administration Medical Center until 2012. He and his wife retired to Wilmington, NC where he served as a consultant to several pharmaceutical companies in development and monitoring of clinical trials searching for new treatments for dry eye disease.
Dr. Foulks was a member of numerous professional societies including Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma Xi honor societies. He was Past President of The Castroviejo Cornea Society and the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists. He was a diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He served on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer and Chairman of the Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation and was Chairman of the CLAO Education and Research Foundation.
He authored over 140 manuscripts, twenty book chapters, and five books. He served as Editor-in-Chief of The Ocular Surface and as editorial board member of Cornea and The Eye and Contact Lenses. He received Honor and Senior Honor Awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He was honored with six named lectureships, including the Claes Dohlman, the Viers, the W. Morton Grant, and the Whitney Sampson Lectures. He was named the Castroviejo Medalist by the Cornea Society in 2005. He received the Health Professional of the Year Award from the Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation in 2010.
Celebrations of life will be held in Wilmington, North Carolina at St. James Parish on March 23, 2025 at 2:00 pm and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at First Lutheran Church on May 17, 2025 at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to First Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh, PA, St. James Parish in Wilmington, NC, or the Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation, Reston, VA
