Eye doctor of the year!

KateLynn Slaamot
NLJ Correspondent
 
A former Newcastle resident — who is still the optometrist at Newcastle Vision Clinic — recently received the Wyoming Optometric Association’s Optometrist of the Year award for his outstanding service. 
The award is endowed based on votes by other optometrists and is announced at the annual WOA meeting in January. Carl Cottrell and his wife, Candace, were unable to attend the meeting, so they were unaware that Cottrell received the award until sometime afterward, when Cottrell received a card of congratulations in the mail from a fellow optometrist. That is when he first found out. 
“I don’t seek out awards,” Cottrell said. 
He loves being an eye doctor though, he said, and that’s enough for him. Although this award was not something he sought out or expected, Cottrell said, he was very honored and humbled by the experience. 
He no longer lives in Newcastle, but Cottrell still is involved with Newcastle Vision Clinic.
Although he and his family moved to Worland in 2010 to be nearer his mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer, Cottrell felt as though he couldn’t pass the torch of the vision clinic to just anyone, he said. He owns the Worland Vision Clinic, and he practices there three days a week – traveling to Newcastle to work the other two days. 
“I care about the community too much,” Cottrell said. 
Cottrell said he misses the community, where some of his best friends live. The Black Hills region, full of its rugged beauty, is another feature that Cottrell said he misses about the area. 
Cottrell said his interest in optometry began when he was in fifth grade. He received his first pair of glasses at that age and was infatuated with the result, he said. He could finally “see the leaves on the trees” and that launched him on the road to helping others see as well.  
After high school, Cottrell attended Northwest College in Powell and the University of Wyoming in Laramie, before beginning studies at Southern California College of Optometry. He graduated in 1998 and came to Newcastle with his wife and two young daughters to open Newcastle Vision Clinic. While in Newcastle, Cottrell and his wife, Candace, had three more daughters – bringing the total to five. 
Learning how to run a business was quite the experience, he said. 
“You learn as you go,” Cottrell said. 
Throughout the years, the field of optometry has changed, Cottrell said, and he is required to go to continuing education to stay up to date with the new technology and trends. Although eye care isn’t generally considered a life or death issue, he said, he realizes that life-threatening issues can be found and lives can be saved. Cottrell’s mission as an optometrist is to maintain ocular health, he said, and help his patients see as clearly as possible. 
“You can make a difference,” Cottrell said.
Although Cottrell appreciates his career, he sees his main goal as providing for his family. His oldest daughter, Morgan, is married with two children and lives in Vernal, Utah, with her husband. Carly is the second oldest and is working in Phoenix. She has recently been accepted into a college in Glendale, Arizona, where she will pursue a master’s degree in speech pathology. Of his three younger daughters, Mackenzie is a sophomore at Utah State University, Caitlin is a senior in high school, and Maren is a freshman. Cottrell said that his wife is the “wind beneath his wings.” 
“I’m definitely family-oriented,” Cottrell said.