The Quinn Family Legacy

Tom Quinn (OD’79, MS’81) first noticed Susan Gibson (OD’82) during an Ohio State Optometry research study visit. He was assisting with a contact lens experiment conducted by then-visiting professor Brien Holden. She was an undergraduate volunteer (a self-described “flinchy emmetrope”) who turned out to be a poor candidate for contact lenses, but as it happened, an excellent candidate for Tom’s attention. He said hello to her in passing for two more years before they ended up on the same white water rafting trip during the summer between her second and third year of optometry school. On the car ride home, Tom wooed her by singing “Tomorrow” from Annie. About a year later, they had a casual date. Within a few weeks, they were inseparable.

Their personal and professional lives have been intertwined ever since. Within a year of getting married, they opened a practice together in Athens, Ohio, building a loyal patient base in the small college town. Six months after opening their doors, their son Brian arrived. A few years later, their daughter Katie.

“Brian was born drawn to music,” Tom recalls. At age six, he pestered his parents for a piano. He got one. By 14, he’d picked up the bass. By high school, writing and playing music was his favorite activity, and he had trouble imagining himself doing anything else.

When he told his parents he didn’t want to go to college and that he wanted to be a touring musician instead, it put them, in Tom’s words, “in a tizzy.” Tom’s first instinct was the instinct of a pragmatic father: “Can’t you just do music on the side, for fun, like I do?”

A friend pointed the family toward Berklee College of Music in Boston. Brian applied, was accepted, and graduated with honors. Today he lives in Chicago, making his living as a freelance bassist, performing with various groups around the city, touring regularly, teaching a handful of students, and fronting his own original band, “bq”.

When Brian thinks about why his parents let him follow such an uncertain path, he traces the answer back through the family tree. His grandfather, Tom Quinn Sr., was locally famous for singing funny songs at the drop of a hat, filling whatever room he was in with warmth and smiles. Tom Sr. made sure his own children grew up in a house full of music, and Tom Jr. carried that forward, performing in musical theater, fronting a doo-wop band, and finding ways to shoehorn songs into his optometric conference lectures. Brian just took it one step further and made it a career.

“Whether my parents were letting me collect rocks instead of playing sports or letting me study music instead of following them into optometry,” Brian says, “they were figuring out where my interests were and giving me the freedom to pursue them.”

Katie excelled in so many different things that it wasn’t quite clear which path she would choose. She settled on a mass communications degree from Miami University, minored in theater, and graduated with honors. Her sights then landed on the NBC Page Program, one of the most competitive entry points in television. She landed a spot, and she was off.

Katie built her own presence as a YouTube food and travel creator, a move that took her around the world and eventually led her to culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. She wrote two cookbooks. The second one, Cheese, Wine, and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy, and France also chronicled her travel experiences across Europe. When she and her video-producer husband, Connor, became parents, she pivoted again, bringing her skills to Wirecutter, the product review division of The New York Times, where she now leads the video team.

One key to Katie’s success is her genuine curiosity. “Learning new things and expanding and deepening relationships. A good life is being close to family and pursuing passions.”

Tom and Susan are about to celebrate 44 years of marriage.

Of all their achievements in life,  they are most proud of Brian and Katie. “Both children are kind, caring people who are doing their best to do good in the world,” says Tom. Susan echoes this but adds a layer. She’s proud that her children understand the importance of mentoring others, that they show up for their communities, and that they’ve taken chances and borne the consequences and come out better for it.

When asked what advice they’d give to optometrists raising children today, Tom’s answer is practical: “Eat dinner together. Touch base. That sense of connection is what family is all about.” Susan’s answer reaches a little further: “Focus on the impact of your work on real people’s lives, and don’t get lost in the daily grind. If you can do that, your children will know that what you do matters. The rest,” she says, “will follow.”

Brian and Katie never showed much interest in becoming optometrists. Neither Tom nor Susan spent much time wishing otherwise. What they passed down instead was the belief that work should mean something and that commitment produces results. And that if your kid wants to play bass guitar or go to culinary school in Paris, the right response is to pay attention and then support them as they pursue their passions.