Jiffy Lube founder speaks of battle with macular degeneration at Morningside College

Hindman, who was 57 at the time, agreed to undergo the same examination at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to help put her at ease.

To Hindman's suprise, both he and Hobbs were diagnosed with macular degeneration, an age-related progressive disease that leads to blindness. The central vision of patients with this condition slowly deteriorates. They can see to the side, but not in front of them.

"My battle with macular degeneration was one of denial, rejecting the idea that I was losing my sight until I was told that I was legally blind and there was nothing more they could do for me," the multimillionaire Jiffy Lube franchise founder and Morningside College graduate said in a recent phone interview from his home in Maryland.

A determined Hindman continued to search for a treatment that would restore his vision. He became the first patient at Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins to have a miniature telescope implanted behind the iris of his left eye. The procedure restored his central vision in his left eye and lead him to create the Hindman Foundation. The nonprofit organization educates others about macular degeneration and the achievements being made to help people with the condition retain and regain their vision.

Hindman, 80, presented a lecture "Was Blind, But Now I See" on Sept. 1 at Morningside. The lecture was based on his 2014 book, which detailed his battle against macular degeneration that blinded him by age 77.

Hindman, now 80, impressed on students to, "Never, never, never give up," a lesson he said he learned on the football field.

Hindman, who was born in Volin, South Dakota, had a tough childhood. His father abandoned the family and his mother left him, at age 10, and his two younger brothers at a Sioux City orphanage. Education and football, he said, was his "ticket" out of the "economic ghetto." He was awarded a football scholarship at Morningside.

Hindman graduated from Morningside in 1957 and went on to earn a master's degree in hospital administration from the University of Minnesota. He rescued financially troubled Baltimore County General Hospital and then began buying nursing homes and turning them around. He became a millionaire by age 35.

"Medicare came in and there was no longer a need to take care of people in the same way that motivated me to start it," he said. "I felt you need a purpose in life. My purpose was sort of lost for a while."

Hindman returned to another passion -- football. He took up coaching at Western Maryland College. His third year as head coach lead him down an unexpected path when he met a young man who told him there were no economic opportunities left in America.

"I was so dumbfounded I said, 'That's ridiculous,'" Hindman recalled. "I thought, 'That kind of a challenge makes me think I ought to go back and demonstrate something."

At the time, big oil companies were putting corner gas station and garages out of business. Hindman saw a need for a convenient oil change. He bought a chain of eight Jiffy Lube stores in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1979, and changed the name to Jiffy Lube International. The chain soon grew into a franchise and then an empire.

"What I did was take care of my friends. I contacted a lot of the football players at Western Maryland and they became part the system and went through that career wealth-building experience," he said. "We went from a dream to a thousand units within 10 years. I think Jiffy Lube now has 2,400 units and they do millions of cars a year. Ain't it great!"

Hindman said he has always felt compelled to find a need and fill it. Today he's doing that through his foundation.

"The world is very, very small in many ways, but in other ways we live in separate islands. The island concerning the eye has developments in Philadelphia and London and Boston and Israel and we don't share that information with others," Hindman said.

The device in Hindman's eye was invented by a surgeon living in Israel. He said a surgeon in Pennsylvania is peeling back the retina, a light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye, and removing dead red blood cells. The procedure, he said, is restoring patients' vision. Hindman said he will be traveling to London to meet with a doctor who may be able to restore vision in his right eye.