Dr. Elliott Brainard #331 (9/15/1924 – 8/31/2009): Brother Brainard, a U.S. Navy veteran in World War II and a Golden Cross recipient, passed to the Adytum on High on Aug. 31 in Pahrump, Nev., at age 76.
Brainard was the youngest naval officer on the USS La Porte during WWII. He was a communications officer on ships that rescued soldiers during the tough island warfare.
Brainard returned to Los Angeles after the war and graduated from the Doctoral program at Los Angeles College of Optometry in 1951. He married Marylin Harford in 1952 and had four children.
Brainard became interested in the preventative and rehabilitative aspects of optometric vision care. He opened his office in Woodland Hills in the San Fernando Valley in 1954. He organized and chaired the first Optometric Extension Program Foundation Study Group, which promoted the study of post-graduate functional and behavioral optometry. He helped the geriatric community as a vision consultant for five convalescent homes in the San Fernando Valley.
Brainard was active in the San Fernando Valley Optometric Society and American Optometric Assn., and he was a vision consultant for the California Dept. of Health and an associate in the National Eye Research Foundation. He also served as Director of Health in Woodland Hills for the California and National Civil Defense. He retired in 1997 after 45 years of professional care. He moved to Pahrump in western Nevada, and served on the Planning Commission.
Brainard’s son, Elliott Jr., can be contacted at (760) 934-9708. His daughter, Ellin Kohler, can be contacted at (760) 934-2712. Donations can be made to the Pahrump Veterans Memorial.
