16 / matters magazine / summer 2018 D r. Bernard Spier, a Maple- wood resident and ophthal- mologist with Northern New Jersey Eye Institute in South Orange, likes to tell stories. Some of his best ones are about his first years in medi- cal school – not in America, but in Grenada, West Indies. Attending school there wasn’t exactly in the plans but his experiences made a big impression on him, prompting him to return regularly on missions trips to help the island’s underserved residents. His connection to Grenada began in 1977. A Columbia High School graduate (class of ’72), he earned his undergraduate degree from Brandeis Uni- versity and had hopes of attending medical school. When he wasn’t accepted to an American school (too much tennis, he claims), he worked in a phar- maceutical packaging job and began another round of applying to schools abroad. Although he was ad- mitted to several, he decided to attend St. George’s University School of Medicine as a member of their charter class. At the time, the school was virtually unknown and Spier admits that it initially took him several spins of the globe to locate the island. For this first-year student of a brand-new medical school in a tiny and poor Caribbean island, the go- ing was rough. “We flew into a jungle and a caravan of taxis took 300 of us to the school,” recalls Spier. The students were housed in two barracks with no electricity and intermittent water. “It reminded me of F Troop with this little shack on the side that they called our lecture hall. They were like, ‘Here’s your medical school.’” New Sight for the Blind Local ophthalmologist gives back to the country that gave him his start BY ELLEN DONKER St. George’s University Medical school F Troop-style barracks in 1977.