The Carlson practice.

In 1978, Dr. Melvin R. Carlson, MD opened Puget Sound Eye Care on N 45th Street in Wallingford. He had trained in ophthalmology at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute and completed a pediatric and strabismus fellowship at the Smith-Kettlewell Institute under Dr. Arthur Jampolsky — the field's defining figure in eye-alignment disorders.

He built the practice slowly. One chair, then two. A second doctor, then a third. Pediatric strabismus referrals came in from across the city. The University of Washington School of Medicine appointed him Associate Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology — a title he still holds.

His son, Dr. Matt Carlson, OD, grew up around the practice. He trained at Pacific University College of Optometry, completed pediatric externships at Northwest Pediatric Eye Care, and won the Tole Greenstein Award for binocular vision, vision therapy, and pediatric optometry — the same clinical world his father had defined a generation earlier.

Today Dr. Matt leads the practice alongside five associate optometrists. Forty-seven years in, the work hasn't changed: see the patient carefully, take the time the case requires, and treat them as a person — not a chart.