100-year-old eye doctor still seeing patients in suburban Chicago

CHICAGO (Fox 32 News) - At 100 years old, a Northbrook eye doctor is still seeing patients.

Dr. Daniel Nast, Jr. started practicing in the 1940s after he was drafted for World War II.

"He can take a pair of glasses in his hand and say here, this is the prescription on it, because that's what he had to do in the 1940's," said Mind-Eye Institute Founder Dr. Deborah Zelinsky.

Dr. Nast sold his practice of over 50 years in Melrose Park and has been working a few days a week at the Mind-Eye Institute for five years. He has no plans of stopping.

"I've had people come in and, several people, who walk into the office and say you know, I just finished reading a book, the first time in my life I ever read a book. How can you not be happy? How can you not be thankful that you're able to do somebody some good this way," Nast said.

Just weeks before he was to graduate from optometry school, Nast was drafted into the Army Air Corp.

"I ended up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which was the home of the Atomic bomb," Nast said. "And all the scientists there, all would come in and sit down for a while and play bridge, so it was quite an experience."

Nast says the most difficult decision was to stop driving. His 90-year-old wife takes him from place to place. He also has assistance from volunteers at his practice.

"His experience in optometry is more than mine, plus the other doctors here together," said Dr. Zelinsky.

And there is no stopping in sight for Dr. Nast.