Dr. Francine Pearlman-Storch: Four Decades of Teaching Excellence

When Francine Pearlman-Storch, OD ‘79, Resident ‘80, decided to retire from teaching at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) at Salus University after more than 40 years, she took one final review of her emails to see if there were any she wanted to save and take with her into retirement.

There she found a note from one of her students who needed to come back for a retest, which the student then successfully passed. Dr. Pearlman-Storch — an intense and demanding taskmaster as an assistant professor — broke one of her rules during the COVID-19 pandemic and hugged the student because she was so proud of what the student had accomplished.

In the email to Dr. Pearlman-Storch, the student wrote: “I want to thank you so much for being a great preceptor and mentor in Clinical Skills Lab. I will remember all your words of wisdom and the funny antics you had that helped us remember the correct things to do or say once we got to the clinic and have real patients. I hope you enjoy your retirement. Thanks again for everything.”

The note touched Dr. Pearlman-Storch.

“That little note from her was the sweetest end to my teaching experience,” she said. “A lot of students don’t know what to do with me at the beginning and were very fearful of me.”

Dr. Pearlman-Storch’s last official day at PCO was Feb. 24, 2021. As an honor, the University presented her with a plaque, fittingly enough, in lane 18 of the Clinical Skills Lab and invited her husband, Jeffrey, and her adult children, son Eli and daughter Leah Eppinger, to join the festivities. 

Melissa Trego, OD ‘04, Resident ‘09, PhD, dean of PCO, said during the retirement ceremony that PCO was blessed to have had Dr. Pearlman-Stoch as part of the program for more that 40 years.

“One of the things that I could always count on with Francine was her ability to be blunt and to hold the students, faculty and myself accountable,” said Dr. Trego. “You have made an impact on so many students. We will miss you terribly and thank you for everything.”

Salus President Michael Mittelman, OD ‘80, MPH, MBA, FAAO, FACHE, added that Dr. Pearlman-Storch’s students have stories about her that they will remember, and they will better for it.

“We all will be better for it. On behalf of the University, I want to thank you for your service. On behalf of myself personally, I want to thank you for what you’ve done for all of us,” said Dr. Mittelman.

The importance of the ceremony certainly wasn’t lost on Dr. Pearlman-Storch.

“It was a very emotional moment. To have my family there, and then with my sweet student’s email, I felt like I went out really nicely,” she said. 

Dr. Pearlman-Storch arrived at PCO as a student in 1975 and never left. After graduation in 1979, she stayed on and did what was then called a “fellowship” — it’s called a “residency” now — and immediately began her teaching career in Module 1 at The Eye Institute (TEI), which included Joel Silbert, OD ‘73, FAAO; Robert Walker, OD ‘70; Christopher Rinehart, OD ‘77, FAAO; and Bernard Blaustein, OD ‘67, FAAO.

Her temperament and her desire to eventually have a family — “I wanted to be able to leave when the time period was over” — steered her toward teaching in the pre-clinical lab as opposed to teaching in the program’s clinical facility. 

“In the clinic you have to wait until the students are done, and sometimes that took forever,” said Dr. Pearlman-Storch. “It’s my personality. I love exactness. Students weren’t always happy with that because I demanded that they be excellent.”

She was always a part-time assistant professor at PCO, and that’s the way she wanted it. That allowed her to indeed have a family as well as work part-time in Philadelphia’s first HMO, Health Service Plan of PA (HSP). In addition, she also had her own part-time solo private practice. Dr. Pearlman-Storch also had a front row seat into the building of TEI and PCO’s evolvement into Salus University.

“I was a student when TEI was built and we were the first people to use the facility,” she said. “Except that we didn’t call it TEI back then. We called it the ‘Tute,’ as in the Philadelphia pronunciation of ‘institute.’ We watched that building get built and we dealt with the interesting choices that they had made for the windows so that every one of the rooms was like a sauna. It was a multicolored contemporary design with the pipes showing, a big deal. Everyone was excited about the beautiful new space.”

Dr. Pearlman-Storch believes in some small way, she touched the lives of almost every PCO student during her career. But when the College started adding programs and eventually became Salus, the transition was difficult to negotiate for some.

Throughout her career, though, the love for her patients never waned. 

“I really enjoyed the interactions with them. I have been honored to take care of three generations of the same family. That was a wonderful feeling that there was enough trust in me that they would allow that to happen,” she said.

She also relished the joyful moments and interfacing she experienced with both her students and colleagues. 

Dr. Pearlman-Storch doesn’t have any “massive” plans in retirement. Her first goal was to schedule her COVID-19 vaccine and then once the pandemic is over, she and her husband plan to resume something  they have loved for years — traveling. 

The two have traveled the world and the United States, where they like to visit state capitals. In pre-pandemic times, they had been to the capitals of 35 states, as well as interesting and unique points of interest along the way. For example, they’ve visited the Idaho Potato Museum when traveling out West; the Paul A. Johnson Pencil Sharpener Museum in Ohio; and the President Jimmy Carter peanut sculpture in Georgia. Other than that, she plans to sit back, take a deep breath and work in the garden with her husband.

But, she will always cherish her time at PCO/Salus.

“The pre-clinical faculty have an interesting role. We are intense with the students and demanding of them,” she said while stressing the importance of the didactic faculty’s role in teaching the students the skills they need prior to entering patient care. 

“But that’s our job, to teach them, and then they go off to the clinic and really do forget about us. Off they fly, and that’s a wonderful experience,” she said. 

Finally reflecting upon her time at PCO/Salus, Dr. Pearlman-Storch said it was bittersweet. 

“It’s been a good life for me. It’s allowed me to be the parent I wanted to be while working,” she said.