Eye’ll be seeing you
Longtime Garrison optician retires after 40 years
By JAMES C. FALCON
editors@bhgnews.com
After making 2,200 trips to Garrison over the past 40 and a half years, optometrist Dr. Keith Schindler is retiring.
His last clinic day at Schindler & Deis Optometry in Garrison was Aug. 24, and Tuesday was his last day at the Bismarck location.
The end of his career will lead to a new beginning, a time when he can do things he wasn’t able to do before.
“It’s really to have the freedom to spend more time with family,” Schindler said of his retirement from the optometry industry. He noted that he and his wife Karen have two daughters that both live out of the area; one lives in Phoenix and the other in Minneapolis.
“We look forward to being able to be with them more now,” he said. “We plan to winter in Arizona. We hope to be snowbirds and split our time.”
In addition to family matters, Schindler noted he would have more time to devote to hobbies.
“I’m going to have more time for things I enjoy,” such as fishing, golfing and bird hunting — things he enjoys, but hasn’t been doing very much of, he said.
A native of McClusky, Schindler’s career began when he graduated from Pacific University College of Optometry in Portland, Ore., in 1980. He began working for Dr. J. A. Power in Beulah and in March 1981, Power purchased an existing optometry practice in Garrison — a practice established by Dr. David Carlson, a Minot-based optometrist who opened a satellite clinic in Garrison.
Under Power’s ownership, the Garrison clinic was managed by Schindler, who made weekly trips, seeing patients every Thursday. However, that soon changed and he began to see patients on Friday as well, staying at the Garrison Motel on Thursday evenings to necessitate this.
