![\"Ernest](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tschannen-podium-event-widebody.jpg\")
\nDuring the Eye Center dedication, Ernest E. Tschannen said he hoped the new facility would help people have better health and better lives for generations to come.<\/p>\n
UC Davis marks the loss of a tremendous friend and visionary with the passing of Ernest E. Tschannen. Tschannen died recently at the age of 101. He was a philanthropist who donated millions to worthy causes, including UC Davis Health, the American River Parkway Foundation, the Tahoe-Pyramid Bikeway, California State University, Sacramento, and other organizations throughout Northern California and Nevada.<\/p>\n
\nDuring the Eye Center dedication, Ernest E. Tschannen said he hoped the new facility would help people have better health and better lives for generations to come.<\/p>\n
Tschannen\u2019s historic $38.5 million gift to the UC Davis Eye Center led to the creation of the world-class facility on the Sacramento campus, the Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute Building.<\/p>\n
In his remarks at the ribbon-cutting and building dedication in October 2022, Tschannen said he hoped the facility would help people have better health and better lives for generations to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cErnest Tschannen\u2019s philanthropy embodied a clear vision: He wanted to improve the world for future generations,\u201d said UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May. \u201cHe built a fortune and yet lived modestly. He chose to direct his resources toward improving the causes he cared about most. We are thankful he helped UC Davis achieve our vision for a world-class eye center in Sacramento.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tschannen-chancellor-shake-bodywide.jpg\")
\nMichele Lim with Ernest Tschannen as he shakes hands with Chancellor Gary S. May during the building dedication in 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Swiss native immigrated to Canada, then U.S.<\/p>\n
Born in 1925, Tschannen (pronounced \u201cShannon\u201d) grew up in the small town of Aarwangen, Switzerland. He immigrated to Canada in the 1950s and eventually moved to the American Midwest, settling in Minnesota.<\/p>\n
There, he worked as a mechanical engineer and began purchasing investment properties. It was a hobby that turned into a successful and lucrative career. Tschannen moved to the Sacramento area in the mid-1980s and participated in the area\u2019s growing economy.<\/p>\n
Tschannen was a pescetarian and an outdoor enthusiast who walked six miles a day. In 2000, he noticed he was losing some of his vision.<\/p>\n
He was diagnosed with glaucoma. When the eyedrops he had been prescribed to treat it stopped working, he was referred to UC Davis Health.<\/p>\n
Tschannen met with ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Michele C. Lim<\/a>. Lim is vice chair and medical director of the UC Davis Eye Center. Lim performed surgery on Tschannen, which prevented further vision loss from glaucoma. As a token of his gratitude \u2014 and to help others with glaucoma and other types of vision loss \u2014 Tschannen gave UC Davis a historic $38.5 million gift.<\/p>\n Institute significantly increased capacity to treat patients<\/p>\n Tschannen was the very first patient to have an eye exam in the building bearing his name when it opened in December 2022.<\/p>\n The 78,500-square-foot, four-story Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute Building includes dedicated space for the UC Davis Eye Center<\/a> clinic and operations, physician offices and conference areas. The beautiful building was thoughtfully designed with high-contrast colors and textures to help people with low vision find their way around more easily.<\/p>\n The new facility expanded the clinic from 25 exam rooms to 64 and increased the number of imaging rooms from 17 to 24.<\/p>\n The new building also significantly increased the Eye Center\u2019s capacity for clinical trials<\/a>, a crucial aspect of research in finding new cures. Current clinical trials include stem cell treatment<\/a> for vision loss, low-energy laser trabeculoplasty therapy for glaucoma<\/a>, micropulse laser treatment<\/a> for diabetic macular edema, and many others<\/a>.<\/p>\n A clinic on the second floor is dedicated to refractive surgery and oculoplastic surgery. The building also houses researchers funded by the National Eye Institute and the Center of Ocular Regenerative Therapies.<\/p>\n Resources<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UC Davis marks the loss of a tremendous friend and visionary with the passing of Ernest E. Tschannen.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-465791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tschannen-building-widebody.jpg\")
\nThe Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute Building on the UC Davis Health Sacramento campus.<\/p>\n