Man with a vision — Jeff Timko stands ready to perform an eye exam, as he has done for more than 40 years at his optometric practice in DeLand. What started as a single office has grown to five independent, yet interconnected, eye-care offices in Volusia and Flagler counties.BEACON PHOTOS/MARSHA MCLAUGHLIN
Clearsighted couple — Dr. Jeff Timko and his wife, Katie, pose by a display of optical frames in Total Vision’s DeLand office.
Jeff Timko came to DeLand 40 years ago to take over an existing optometry practice.
Four decades later, he’s still going strong and now treating a third generation of patients, Timko said in a recent interview.
Timko first came to Florida with his family in 1951, when he was 2 years old, and they spent the next decade in Madeira Beach in Pinellas County. Although he and his family returned to Ohio in 1961, Timko often vacationed in the Sunshine State through his college years.
He enrolled at The Ohio State University College of Optometry in 1973, and was a clinical instructor there for two years after he graduated.
Then Timko learned that Dr. Willis LaBaw wanted to sell the optometry practice in DeLand that he started in 1949. Timko came down from Ohio in February 1976, met with Dr. LaBaw and his wife, Sadie, and came to an agreement to buy the practice.
“I went back to Ohio and told [my wife] Katie that we were moving to Florida,” Timko recalled.
He started working at what is now Total Vision Eye Health Associates in mid-June 1976, and LaBaw left at the end of the month.
Over the next four decades, Timko has overseen the growth of the Total Vision brand to five offices in Volusia and Flagler counties. Each is an independent practice owned by an assortment of optometrists, some of whom came up through the Total Vision ranks.
“I waned to provide private practices where doctors would have a chance to work, gain experience, and buy into a practice,” Timko said.
For instance, the DeBary and Port Orange offices are owned by Drs. Dustin Ramey and Kirsten Reed Wilgers, respectively. Both are Volusia County natives who worked for Total Vision before buying the practices where they had worked.
The five offices work cooperatively despite the diverse ownerships, Timko said. They share a common website, and have joint marketing and other professional endeavors.
Timko has one partner in the DeLand office at 840 N. Stone St., Dr. Charles Heacock, who joined in 1989. The telephone number is 386-734-1766.
Timko, Heacock and Dr. Phil Stephens co-own the Total Vision practice in New Smyrna Beach. Timko’s son Ryan works in the DeLand and New Smyrna Beach offices but is not yet a partner, the elder Timko said.
Timko and Heacock also started the offices in DeBary and Port Orange before selling them; they’re not involved in either office today. Drs. Stephens and Mike Cady co-own the office in Palm Coast.
Timko is proud to have been thoroughly active in the DeLand community over the years. He was on the Volusia County School Board from 1990 to 2002, and was its chairman three times. He also is a past president of the DeLand Area Chamber of Commerce and founder
and 32-year chairman of the Leadership DeLand (now called Leadership West Volusia) Advisory Committee, and he serves on Leadership Florida Association and the DeLand Rotary Club board.
Timko also has been busy raising a family. He and Katie have three children — Ali, Ryan and Wesley — and six grandchildren; all of them live in Volusia County.
And Timko still enjoys his work, even after four decades.
“Forty years — but I’m still not ready to retire,” he said.
- Joe Crews, joe@beacononlinenews.com
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