John Durst, president of Columbia Rotary Club, Dr. Hal Crosswell, Tom Person, and Kathy Crosswell

Hal H. Crosswell Jr. was recently named Columbia Rotary Club's 2008 Rotarian of the Year.

Crosswell graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina and has been in the private practice of ophthalmology with the Columbia Eye Clinic for more than 40 years. He is also a clinic associate professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.

He has been a member of the Columbia Rotary Club for over 40 years and served as chief of the Department of Ophthalmology at both Richland Memorial Hospital and Providence Hospital, and Chief of Staff of Providence Hospital.

Crosswell has been on the Advisory Board of Providence Hospital and the Board of Visitors at Columbia College, as well as the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, President of the Providence Hospital Foundation, and on the Board of Visitors at the Medical University of South Carolina.

He was awarded the Alginon Sidney Sullivan Award by USC last year. He has been coordinator of Ophthalmology services - Caribbean area - United Methodist Volunteers in Missions and is a member of Shandon United Methodist Church. He coached little league baseball for 20 years.

Crosswell has five children and six grandchildren and is married to the former Katherine Dorman.

He has published at least seven books or significant papers.

Last year, in the "Haiti United Methodist Volunteers in Mission," Dr. Crosswell's team did, in a ten day period, 800 consultations and 30 major eye operations. During the time that he has been coordinating this work, they have seen 80,000 patients and have performed approximately 3,000 major eye operations in Haiti, which is one third the size of the state of South Carolina and has a population of eight million people with a per capita income of less than $300 per year.

In addition, they are now working in the orphanages there as well as training Haitian ophthalmologists and nurses in microsurgical techniques. The Columbia Rotary Club and other Rotary Clubs in the area have provided equipment to Crosswell. The Lion's Club has provided many thousands of pairs of useful eye glasses.

There are eight people on the team which includes three ophthalmologists and technicians. Crosswell is assisted by his wife, Katherine, an ophthalmology nurse.