About Us

Rochester Family Eye Clinic consists of the partnership of Dr. Fred A. Butler, Dr. Bryan L. Johnson, and Dr. Melissa K. Downs.

The beginnings of Rochester Family Eye Clinic can be traced back as far as the early 1900's when Dr. R. L. Sheridan's grandfather started an optometric practice. Most directly, its roots go back to the early 1960's when Rochester optometrists, Dr. R. L. Sheridan and Dr. J. D. Berglund joined forces to build the building at 307 East Center Street that housed East Center Vision Clinic. They formed a partnership to buy the building, but kept their individual practices separate by forming an expense sharing arrangement.

Since the patient files and accounts receivable were kept separate, Drs. Sheridan and Berglund had their separate entities to sell, and their practices were sold to Dr. Bryan Johnson ad Dr. Fred Butler, respectively.

Dr. Butler graduated from Pacific University School of Optometry in June 1977 and directly joined Dr. Berglund's practice. Dr. Berglund hired Dr. Butler with the idea of retiring in 5 years. In 1980, Dr. Berglund decided to retire earlier than initially planned, and Dr. Butler bought the optometric practice from Dr. Berglund.

In 1989, Dr. Bryan Johnson joined the practice of Dr. Sheridan. Dr. Johnson is also a graduate of Pacific University School of Optometry. He worked as an optician in the Army prior to entering optometry school. After graduation from optometry school he worked as an optometrist in the Navy for three years prior to joining Dr. Sheridan. In 1990, Dr. Johnson bought Dr. Sheridan's optometric practice.

In October of 1996, Dr. Melissa Downs joined East Center Vision Clinic working as a salaried staff doctor, having the intent to eventually buy in to the practice. Dr. Downs, originally from Spooner, Wisconsin, completed her undergraduate study at St. Cloud State University, and completed her doctorate degree in Optometry at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

In January 1997 Drs. Butler and Johnson merged their practices and took Dr. Downs into the partnership to form Rochester Family Eye Clinic. The three doctors also formed a building ownership/ partnership and built the new building on 37th Street NW. In June of 1998 the practice was moved from East Center Street to the new location at 3630 11th Ave NW.

In August of 1999 Dr. Mark Kidman, who grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, joined the staff of Rochester Family Eye Clinic as an associate to the three doctors in the partnership. Dr. Kidman graduated from the University of Houston College of Optometry. He continues to practice optometry at Rochester Family Eye Clinic.

With more than 22,000 active patient files, Rochester Family Eye Clinic is the largest privately owned optometric practice in the Southeastern Minnesota area.