Stanley Pearle, founder of Pearle Vision, a chain of eye-care stores that now has 675 branches in North America, died July 21 at 92 at his home in Dallas, Texas.
Pearle founded the company in 1961 with a single store in Savannah, Ga., began franchising the concept in 1981 and eventually sold it to Luxottica of Italy, a designer and manufacturer of frames and sunglasses.
In a memoir he published in 2006, Pearle said that even though “Jewish mothers always wanted their sons to be either doctors or lawyers,” he went into optometry because he did not have the money, grades or interest for medical school. His interest in eyeglasses was sparked by a Depression-era job at a jewelry store in his hometown of Pittsburgh.
Pearle graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Optometry and moved to Dallas in 1940 to take his board examinations. He was managing a Dallas optical firm when he founded the first Pearle Optical store.
Pearle established OneSight, which provides eye care and glasses to the poor worldwide, and invests in eye research and students pursuing optometry. Pearle also supported the United Way and the Jewish Welfare Foundation.
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