Loran B. Morgan (October 14, 1918 – November 23, 2009) was a United States ophthalmologist best known as the inventor of the Morgan Lens. Early years, 1918-43 Loran B. Morgan was born in Pipestone, Minnesota on October 14, 1918. the fourth of five children born to Mabelle and William Morgan. Morgan knew from a young age that he wanted to be a doctor. After graduating from high school in 1936, he attended the University of Minnesota and then the University of Minnesota Medical School, graduating in March 1943. He then interned at St. Luke's Hospital in Denver. While in Denver, he met his wife, Beth Ashburn, a native of Torrington, Wyoming, who was then a nurse, but who subsequently stayed at home to raise the couple's two children. Army career, 1943-46 While in medical school, Morgan served in the medical division of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the United States Army in 1941. After completing his internship, he was called up by the army in December 1943 and sent to Carlisle Barracks for medical officer training. He married Beth in Carlisle Barracks in January 1944. He spent the next ten months receiving Army training, including in parachute jumping. He was stationed at Camp Forrest when he was sent to the battlefield. During World War II, Morgan served with the 40th Parachute Field Artillery Battalion. His battalion saw action on March 24, 1945 as part of Operation Varsity. Of the 300 men who made the initial jump, 50 were killed and 100 were injured, and as the battalion surgeon, he was the first doctor the wounded saw. Morgan was awarded a Bronze Star Medal for his work as a doctor during this time. An interview with Morgan detailing his experiences as a doctor during this operation, and later during the Battle of the Bulge, was featured on the History Channel in 1999. After the war, 1946-57 After his discharge from the army in 1946, Morgan traveled to Torrington, Wyoming, where his wife and daughter (born on October 24, 1944, while Morgan was overseas) had lived while he was in Europe. He was then hired as a company doctor by the Empire Zinc Company, moving his young family to Gilman, Colorado. However, in 1948, during a visit to his wife's family in Torrington, he was struck with appendicitis and Dr. Krahl, the doctor who