LAWRENCE, Mass. — Kenneth Macoul has put away his pupil dilator, screening lens, refractor and slit lamp — for now.
Macoul retired Oct. 16 after 40 years of performing eye surgery at his practice on Haverhill Street.
"I've been mulling this for three to four years, and it's time," Macoul said. "I'm doing this with mixed emotions because, I still have all of my talents."
He said he will spend half of the year in Methuen and the other half in Tampa, Fla., where he will spend time with his family and perform surgery on members of the Senior Professional Golf Association tour.
Doctors Mark Fava and Samir Melki, director of the Boston Eye Group, will take over Macoul's practice. Melki is no stranger to many of the patients there, as he worked with Macoul for 10 years. Fava will be the director of the Lawrence office.
Macoul's practice has been renamed Boston Eye Group, after the team of doctors who specialize in cataract surgery, macular degeneration, laser eye surgery and corneal transplantation.
Over his four decades in the business, Macoul developed a solid reputation among his patients and his peers.
And to think, his career in medicine almost didn't happen.
After graduating from Lawrence High School in 1957, where he was class salutatorian, Macoul won a full scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied electrical engineering and did research on the neurology of the eye, even writing his thesis on the neurological relationship between the brain and the eyes.
"Engineering wasn't much of a challenge, so I changed majors," Macoul said. After graduating from MIT, he enrolled at Tufts Medical School, again on a full scholarship.
Macoul said Lawrence was the only place he thought of when opening his office.
"I felt an alliance to the city and I wanted to come back and make a contribution," he said. "I grew up poor and I wanted to help the poor and I never regretted."
Macoul was born in Lawrence and raised on Auburn Street. His father worked in the Arlington Mills, and his mother was a fancy stitcher at a shoe factory.
In addition to performing surgery, he invented the Macoul retinoscope, which helps conduct eye exams on children, and patients who are bedridden and have other debilitating diseases.
Staff members said they will miss Macoul for his personality, his professionalism and their outings to Lebanese restaurants whenever an employee celebrated a birthday. He even sang to them.
"He's been wonderful to me," said Holly McLatchy of Derry, N.H., who worked for Macoul for 26 years. "He supported me, my family, my kids. He is a good friend."
Longevity was a trend at Macoul's office. Darlene Accadi was employed by the doctor for 31 years.
"This was his other family," Accadi said.
She said Macoul was so devoted to his patients that he never took more than three days off.
"I'm not committing myself to much so I can feel what is like to be on vacation," Macoul said of his retirement plans. "But my wife doesn't think I'll last a week."
Macoul and his wife of 44 years, Carol, have three children and four grandchildren.
In addition to playing golf and working on real estate projects, Macoul hopes to catch up on some reading, particularly medieval, European and U.S. history.
He will remain a consultant for Boston Eye Group, and will return to Lawrence once or twice a year.
Macoul said he is happy he is leaving his patients under the care of Boston Eye Group.
Fava said the Lawrence office has already installed new equipment for glaucoma and cataract treatment, as well as services such as LASIK vision correction and premium cataract implants.
