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Recipients Displayed
The names of the Foley House Basement Key Award recipients are proudly displayed in the IU School of Optometry Library on the basement door salvaged from the Foley House when it was torn down in 1977. Dr. David Goss wrote in the Indiana Journal of Optometry (Fall 2003, vol 6, no 2, pg 53):
Irvin Borish and Dennis Yamanmoto were walking back from lunch when they happened to witness the destruction of the building [Foley House] in progress. Wanting to salvage a souvenir of the house, they were able to convince one of the workers to part with the basement door for a sum of $2.
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The annual IU School of Optometry alumni breakfast held at 7:44 a.m. during the American Optometric Association meeting is unquestionably the most unusual function sponsored by any group during the convention. Playfully dubbed the "Foley House Basement Breakfast and Awards Banquet" by its co-founders, Drs. Mike Obremsky and Don Pitts, it is always held in some unlikely part of the convention center--the boiler room, loading docks, in the kitchen, or wherever--to revive memories of the rustic facilities at 744 East Third Street (Bloomington, Indiana) that served as the IU Optometry clinic for ten years before the present Optometry building was constructed.
Beginning with the first breakfast (in the Convention Center basement of the Las Vegas Hilton in 1976), a "Foley House Basement Door Key Award" was presented each year to an individual distinguished for his or her role in memorializing Foley House. After so honoring ten persons from 1976-1985, the selection committee was unable to single out another individual, so the 1986 award went to "et al." in recognition of all the others who did something commendable or commemorative in relation to Foley House. That could have ended the Foley House Awards, but those at the 1986 breakfast voted to continue the awards, basing them on tradition-building for the school in general, rather than just the Foley House.
The Foley House, once located at 744 E. Third St. (Bloomington, Indiana), served as the Optometry clinic from 1959-1968. Read about the Foley House era on Pages 44-54 of the Fall 2003 Indiana Journal of Optometry.
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Past Recipients |
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1976, Las Vegas
Las Vegas Hilton convention center basement
William Baldwin
1977, Toronto
Royal York Hotel basement
Henry W Hofsetter
1978, New Orleans
Convention Center women's locker room
Donald Pitts
1979, Anaheim
Convention Center kitchen
Charles R. Schick
1980, Denver
Hilton Savoy Room (under construction at time of event)
Gordon G. Heath
1981, Las Vegas
Las Vegas Hilton loading dock bullpen
Michael J. Obremsky
1982, Boston
Sheraton parking garage
Ingeborg Schmidt
1983, Washington, DC
Employee's cafeteria
Irving Borish
1984, Honolulu
Hilton Hawaiian Village Lagoon
Dennis Yamamoto
1985, LasVegas
Las Vegas Hilton storage area behind Ballroom A
Jack Bennett
1986, San Diego
Under the hotel sign next to the freeway
"et al." for all those other individuals whose contributions to the legend of Foley House have gone unrecognized and unrewarded, and will continue that way
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Complete list of Foley House award recipients
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