Career
He is one of Canada’s most distinguished ophthalmologic writers and surgeons. Kwitko was the first doctor in Canada to insert intraocular lens implants during cataract surgery (1967) and the first doctor in Canada to perform radial keratotomy surgery (1979). He was associate professor of ophthalmology at McGill University in Montreal as well as Chief of Ophthalmology at Saint Mary's Hospital in Montreal.
In 2002 he was made a knight, when The Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson, on the recommendation of the Grand Prior, appointed him to the Most Venerable Order of Saint John of Jerusalem.
Kwitko also served on the Advisory Committee on the Eximer Laser for Health and Welfare Canada. Kwitko was born to Louis Kwitko and Rose Gomberg in New York, New New York He had two sisters, Phyllis Kantor and Sandra Mula.
A few years after his birth, the family moved to Brantford, Ontario. Kwitko went to Brantford Collegiate High School.
After graduating, Kwitko attended the University of Western Ontario and received a Bachelor of Arts in English (1955), Doctor of Medicine (1956) and his Masters degree in Pharmacology (1958).
He was a resident and Fellow in ophthalmology at the Washington District of Columbia Hospital Center. In 2002 Kwitko died in Montreal, Canada. He was Senior Lecturer at the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Secretary for the International College of Surgeons, President of the International Council on cataract and refractive surgery, served on the board of 10 ophthalmologic journals, Board of Directors of the National Association for Visually Handicapped and Past president of the Montreal Chapter of Canadian Associates of Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
As Executive Secretary of the International Society of Geographic Ophthalmology, Kwitko organized scientific meetings in Yellowknife, Cadiz, Tunis, Sardinia and Rio de Janeiro.
In 1975 he helped co found the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery. He is the recipient of the University of Western Ontario Honor Award (1956), the Senior Honor Award of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (1989), Louisiana Medaille d’Honneur, L’Association Francaise des Implants Intraculaires (1976), the Professor
Ignacio Barraguer Award (Spain 1970), the P. Siva Reddy Medal (India 1980) and the Agora trophy from Les Club des Ambassadeurs. Kwitko developed the “Rose and Louis Kwitko” Scholarship at Brantford Collegiate High School, the Doctor Marvin L. Kwitko Scholarship in Anatomy at the University of Western Ontario, and the “Doctor Marvin L. Kwitko” Scholarship at the University of Toronto.