Dr. James Van Wagnen owns Down Home Optometry in Alpena, located at 1035 U.S.-23 North, in front of Perch’s IGA, in Alpena.

It’s truly a family business, as he and his wife Paula work together. She is the office manager, and he takes care of the exams. His daughter, Victoria Kakish, works there, too, helping fit clients for glasses and conducting other tasks to serve clients, many of whom have been coming to see Van Wagnen for decades.

“The neat thing about what I’ve done is I’ve seen families grow up,” Van Wagnen said. “After 50 years, you treat kids when they’re younger, and they’ll come in and say, ‘I was here 30 years ago.'”

He said their client base has been wonderful over the years.

News Photo by Darby Hinkley Dr. James Van Wagnen and his wife Paula pose for a photo next to the optometry equipment. Paula works as the office manager at Down Home Optometry.

“We’re very fortunate,” he said. “The people we take care of are very positive, and they’re just looking for someone to help them … We have a very positive atmosphere here.”

Van Wagnen started to think about becoming an optometrist when he was in high school.

“When I was in high school, I wound up being nearsighted,” Van Wagnen said. “My father sent me to one of his friends in Jackson — an ophthalmologist, and he did an exam, and I went back and got glasses.”

His father, Dr. F.I. Van Wagnen, practiced medicine in Jackson, where he grew up.

“My father was a physician, and I worked as an orderly, growing up, in hospitals,” Van Wagnen said.

He likes everything about optometry.

“I liked being my own boss, being independent,” Van Wagnen said. “It turns out that it’s a very positive profession. I basically examine people for glasses and fit contact lenses. And I do health screenings for eyes. It is the sort of thing that, when I do my work, and order a pair of glasses, a week or so later, when they come in to pick it up, you put the glasses on them, and they say, ‘Oh my gosh! I can see!’ What a marvelous thing.”

He said that feeling of helping people see is gratifying.

“If I do what I’m trained to do, and do it properly, people see well,” he said. “It’s simple, but it’s sort of addictive, because it’s the kind of thing that you really enjoy doing.”

Van Wagnen uses a wooden lecture stand that his father built, which means a great deal to him.

“I just keep notes on this as I examine patients,” Van Wagnen said about the lecture stand. “I write down the materials that I need to know … His hobby was woodworking, so he built that.”

Van Wagnen’s son, Jon, is carrying on the family tradition.

“My son Jon is an optometrist in Charlevoix,” Van Wagnen shared. “He’s been out of school 11 years. He went to Ferris State University.”

Van Wagnen said Ferris now has an excellent optometry program.

“When I went, I started out going to Alma College for three years,” Van Wagnen recalled. “There was no in-state school in optometry when I was at Alma. So I wound up going to Indiana University in Bloomington for four years to get my doctorate.”

He graduated in 1973 from Indiana University. He said about four years after he graduated, an optometry school was started at Ferris.

“Ferris is the only optometry school in Michigan right now,” he added. “It’s a $27 million building. It’s beautiful. We go there for conventions, lots of times. We have to put in 20 graduate hours a year to maintain our license, so my son and I, quite often, go to conventions together.”

Van Wagnen explained how he migrated up to Alpena.

“When I was at Alma, a friend of mine, Bruce Kane, his dad was the dentist here in town, and he introduced me to Alpena, originally,” Van Wagnen recalled. “And I wanted to come to northern Michigan after I graduated. So, instead of going back to Jackson, I came up here and started practice with Dr. Miller, who was an older optometrist that was looking to sell his business. And then, after six months being there, I started my own practice.”

He started out in the Kane building on Chisholm Street near Dairy Queen.

“I was there for several years,” Van Wagnen said. “Then we bought this building, and in 2000, we built this wing onto the building so that it would be barrier-free so I could see patients in wheelchairs.”

Van Wagnen and his wife are Christians, and they see optometry as a way to use their gifts and talents to help others.

“The thing I like about it, is it’s such a positive thing to do,” Van Wagnen said. “I’m a Christian, and I like helping others. That’s why I’ve done it for so long.”

He noted that only 5% of practicing optometrists are 70 or older, and he’s happy to have earned that distinction.

“It’s unusual,” he said with a smile. “Most men my age, and women, have retired from it. And that’s another thing about our profession. When I went, there were 50 guys and two girls in my class at Indiana, and now, better than half the class are women.”

On the medical side, he’s seen some changes over the past 50 years.

“Aside from the basic anatomy of the eye, and looking for pathology, when we were taught, they’ve gotten more and more into what would be ophthalmological treatment of diseased eyes, and that’s how it’s changed over the 50 years since I’ve graduated,” he explained. “So, my son, for example, will take care of more complicated medical problems with the eye, whereas, I would refer that to a specialist.”

He explained the difference between an optometrist and an ophthalmologist.

“An ophthalmologist is a medically trained doctor that does surgery, and usually handles diseases of the eye,” Van Wagnen said. “They’re more into the surgery aspect … cataract surgery, macular degeneration, that sort of thing, so they would treat medical-related problems.”

He noted that optometrists provide periodic checkups as more of a maintenance service, and would refer to an ophthalmologist if a more complex problem arises.

“There’s more of us, so we do more of the general exams,” Van Wagnen said. “In the meantime, we’re looking for high pressure, glaucoma, we’re looking for medical problems inside the eye, and if we see that, even though we’re not capable of handling that, we can refer that to the proper ophthalmologist.”

Van Wagnen and his wife enjoy working together. She worked as a nurse for many years, retiring in the early 1990s when she started working in the office at Down Home Optometry.

“I work with my wife and my daughter in my practice, and it’s just ideal,” he said. “That part of it is just delightful … I’ve been very grateful for Alpena. I’ve really loved living here. It was a good choice. A great place to raise a family.”

They actually lived in the Presque Isle Lighthouse for two years upon first moving up north, but now they live in an Alpena neighborhood near their office.

“I have no regrets whatsoever,” he added. “If I was going to do it again, I’d do the same thing. People ask me if I’m going to retire. I have no motivation to retire. I really enjoy what I do, I work with my family, and for as long, physically, as I can practice and take care of people, I feel that’s my duty.”

For more information, contact Van Wagnen at 989-356-4231.

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