Tasmanian optometrist Micheal Knipe dies at age 64

A Tasmanian optometrist celebrated for his work at home and overseas has died.

Optometrist Micheal Knipe and medical student Shaun Ewe, both of Hobart, spend Australia Day volunteering with the East Timor Eye Program in the Dili National Hospital. Picture: MATT NEWTON

A Tasmanian optometrist celebrated for his work at home and overseas has died.

Micheal Knipe, AM, passed away on February 7 at the age of 64 after a long battle with prostate cancer.

His colleague and friend Andrew Koch, CEO of Total Eyecare, said his skills as well as his personal strength would be missed by the community.

“He was a very good communicator and a very good collaborator. He’d make people feel good, and he had attention to detail,” said Mr Koch.

“He very much had the strength to move things in the community and to make things better and to create structures and systems that would keep going.”

Mr Knipe was well known for his work in the East Timor Eye Program, which has been delivering eye care to the South-East Asian community for more than 15 years.

“One thing Micheal was really good at was talking to people there and getting them on side,” Mr Koch said.

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In 2015, Mr Knipe was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to: the community of East Timor; the Royal Hobart Hospital, where he expanded and improved the resources in the eye clinic; and to the Tasmanian and Australian field of optometry more broadly.

During his 40-year career, he was a founding partner of Total Eyecare and held board and chair positions with Optometry Australia, ProVision Eyecare, and the charity Optometry Giving Sight.

“He has been a leader, he developed people around him, he was excellent in his eye care and his patients loved him,” Mr Koch said.

“But his strength is probably the thing that makes him stand out. If he wasn’t strong, he wouldn’t have achieved what he has done.”

Mr Knipe will be farewelled in a funeral service on Saturday at the Turnbull Funerals Chapel in North Hobart.

In lieu of flowers, his family welcomes donations to the East Timor Eye Program.