Optician is saddened to report the death of contact lens optometrist Murray McGrath, who died on December 27, 2020.
McGrath was educated at Melville College in Edinburgh before beginning his career as an optometrist at his father’s practice in the city, W M McGrath. After a few years McGrath established his own part-time contact lens practice in his family home.
Eventually McGrath made contact lens practice his full-time role, seeking out challenging cases and fitting contact lenses for complex eyes, such as scarred eyes. This work was pioneering in the 1970s and contributed to the opening of McGrath and Cameron in 1981 when McGrath became an equal partner with Donald Cameron.
In 2001 McGrath and Cameron expanded into a three storey building on St Vincent Street in Edinburgh. McGrath then began his retirement and Cameron’s son Ian took over the practice.
McGrath was a keen jazz enthusiast, animal rights activist published his own books of poems. He also owned a Ferrari Quatrovalvoli, but was convinced that he could be happy in any circumstance.
McGrath is survived by his brother, David McGrath.