Remembering Ernest E. Tschannen

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.

Tschannen’s 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. The gift is the largest individual donation in UC Davis Health’s history.

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.

“Ernest Tschannen’s philanthropy embodied a clear vision: He wanted to improve the world for future generations,” said UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May. “He 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.”

Swiss native immigrated to Canada, then U.S.

Born in 1925, Tschannen (pronounced “Shannon”) 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.

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’s growing economy.

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. 

He was diagnosed with glaucoma. When the eyedrops he had been prescribed to treat it stopped working, he was referred to UC Davis Health. 

Tschannen met with ophthalmologist and eye surgeon Michele C. Lim. 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 — and to help others with glaucoma and other types of vision loss — Tschannen gave UC Davis a historic $38.5 million gift. 

“Mr. Tschannen was not only a generous philanthropist, he was also a dear friend. After decades of dreaming of a state-of-the-art eye institute for leading-edge eye care and research in the Sacramento region, Mr. Tschannen helped us turn that vision into a reality,” said Mark J. Mannis, immediate past professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science. “With his generous donation, we have helped more patients than ever and vigorously pursued cures for eye diseases that currently have no treatment. He will be dearly missed.”

Institute significantly increased capacity to treat patients

Tschannen was the very first patient to have an eye exam in the building bearing his name when it opened in December 2022. 

The 78,500-square-foot, four-story Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute Building includes dedicated space for the UC Davis Eye Center 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.

The new facility expanded the clinic from 25 exam rooms to 64 and increased the number of imaging rooms from 17 to 24. 

The new building also significantly increased the Eye Center’s capacity for clinical trials, a crucial aspect of research in finding new cures. Current clinical trials include stem cell treatment for vision loss, low-energy laser trabeculoplasty therapy for glaucoma, micropulse laser treatment for diabetic macular edema, and many others.

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. 

“Philanthropists like Ernest Tschannen make the kind of difference that lifts up an excellent institution like the UC Davis Eye Center and helps it to be a world-class eye institute,” said Thiran Jayasundera, the Fosse Endowed Chair in Vision Science Research and current chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science. “We are fortunate to have benefitted from his selfless giving back to the community. His noble vision of better eyesight for all is making a difference every day in the lives of his fellow Northern Californians receiving care in the Ernest E. Tschannen Eye Institute.”