When J. Geoffrey “Geoff” Slingsby, MD, decided to pursue his residency training at the University of Colorado Department of Ophthalmology in 1977, he didn’t know how special the university would become to his future family.
At the time, he thought of CU as the same university where his father, an OB-GYN, had received residency training. But CU would also become the place where he would reconnect with Jacalyn “Jackie” Slingsby, a medical technology student who would later become his wife and the mother of his two children. One of their sons followed in his father’s footsteps, completing his ophthalmology residency training at the CU School of Medicine in 2020.
Now, Geoff and Jackie Slingsby continue their family’s CU tradition by donating funds to the Department of Ophthalmology, supporting future generations of ophthalmologists and the department’s pursuit of improving care at the Sue Anschutz-Rodgers Eye Center.
“With my father, me, and my son going to the CU School of Medicine and getting excellent training there, supporting CU is a legacy for us. Watching the growth of the ophthalmology department and the research and advancements they’ve made, being donors seemed like a good way for us to give back,” Geoff Slingsby says. “Whatever way we can help, that’s what we want to do.”
Growing up in Rapid City, South Dakota, as the son of an OB-GYN, Geoff Slingsby was drawn to the world of medicine at a young age. He attended medical school at the University of South Dakota for two years. While there, he had a first date with his future wife, but soon after, he transferred to the Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta to complete his medical degree, so the pair lost touch. After completing medical school in Atlanta, Geoff Slingsby recalls he “jumped at the chance” to join the ophthalmology residency program at CU, an institution he had long admired.
Coincidentally, Jackie Slingsby, who was Jackie Taylor at the time, had also transferred to CU to study medical technology at the CU Health Sciences Center in Denver. Three years after her first date with Geoff Slingsby, she was surprised to see him during lunch hour one day on campus.
“I was in the cafeteria line, and I went up and introduced myself and said, ‘I think we’ve met before.’ We started talking, and we had something in common because we were both from South Dakota,” she says. “That’s how it all began, there at CU.”
When Geoff Slingsby began his residency training at CU, new surgical methods for the eye were being introduced, allowing him to witness innovative approaches to addressing retinal issues.
Before deciding to pursue ophthalmology, he was also intrigued by neurosurgery. During residency, he discovered a way to blend his interests — becoming a retina specialist. The retina, a layer inside the eye that detects light and transmits information to the brain, is a key part of a person’s vision. If a person has issues with their retina, such as retinal detachment, they may need a specialist like Geoff Slingsby to perform surgery on their eye.
“It was the early years of new types of surgeries like vitrectomies,” he says. Vitrectomies, now a common procedure, are eye surgeries that may involve removing some, or all, of the vitreous — a gel-like substance in the eye — to address issues with the retina and vitreous.
“The CU residency program was very well led,” he continues, explaining he found influential mentors at CU who taught him how to become an excellent clinician who works hard and with integrity.
“Mentoring is a strong part of medical education, particularly in the residency years,” he says. “It’s important to learn something new every day, because you're never going to learn enough, and you can never learn too much.”
After completing his residency at CU in 1980, Geoff and Jackie Slingsby moved to California so he could complete a retina fellowship at the University of Southern California. Following his fellowship, they returned to Rapid City in 1982, and Geoff Slingsby took over a private practice from another ophthalmologist.
“It was very busy from day one. In the beginning, I was the only retina specialist in town, but shortly after, another specialist began working at a different practice in the same region,” he says. “We would talk about cases and were able to provide essentially a full spectrum of retinal care to patients in the area, from standard retinal detachment surgery to complex vitrectomy, membrane peeling, and complex retinal detachment surgeries.”
Beyond their passion for helping others, both Geoff and Jackie Slingsby have a love for flying airplanes. They purchased a small plane that unlocked new potential for Geoff Slingsby to provide care to rural patients both in and outside of South Dakota. He regularly flew to clinics in places like Aberdeen, South Dakota, and Chadron, Nebraska, to care for patients and perform surgeries.
“Patients want to get their care close to home, especially because there can be barriers to getting care elsewhere,” he says. “Training excellent, world-class practitioners who then spread out is important, because people everywhere need this level of care.”
Geoff Slingsby retired in 2022, but the Slingsby name lives on at the South Dakota ophthalmology practice — now, through his son Taylor Slingsby, MD.
Taylor Slingsby attended college at the University of Southern California and medical school at the University of South Dakota. Then, nearly four decades after his father was accepted into the CU ophthalmology residency program, Taylor Slingsby received similar news.
“It’s been wonderful to see what he’s done,” Geoff Slingsby says. “He was very happy with his residency training at CU. He went on to do his retina fellowship at the Cincinnati Eye Institute and decided to come home to Rapid City and bring his advanced skills in vitreoretinal surgery to the practice.”
Geoff and Jackie Slingsby instilled a passion for flying in both their sons as well, and Taylor Slingsby plans to use airplanes to visit clinics in rural areas like his father did. Their other son, Jason Slingsby, who received his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from CU Boulder and a master’s degree from the Colorado School of Mines, is also an aviation enthusiast. He found a unique way to incorporate planes into his job — by opening FlyteCo Tower, a brewery, bar, restaurant, and entertainment venue that operates out of the former Stapleton air traffic control tower in Denver.
“Once you send a student to Colorado, it’s hard to get them to leave. Jason went to CU as an undergrad and he never left Colorado,” Jackie Slingsby says with a laugh. “Colorado has always felt close to us, and we visit often. We call Denver our second home.”
In the years since Geoff Slingsby was part of the CU Department of Ophthalmology, he has been impressed to see how the department and the overall CU Anschutz Medical Campus has grown and evolved.
“They’re doing groundbreaking research at the eye center and innovating new ocular, glaucoma, and retina procedures,” Geoff Slingsby says. “I was a clinical doctor, not a researcher, but we want to help support the people who are making advances in other ways, such as with experimental devices, new procedures, and novel research. If we all work together, we can really help others.”
Supporting educational institutions and initiatives has always been important to Geoff and Jackie Slingsby, she explains, as it was something that each of their parents valued and invested in as well.
“You realize the importance of education when you’ve been raised around it, and we want to give back to students,” Jackie Slingsby says. “I think CU is a world-class facility. It’s something we believe in, and I hope other people will be inspired to want to do the same.”
Note: All images are courtesy of Geoff and Jackie Slingsby.