He served his internship at New Orleans Charity Hospital.

Upon completing his internship, he became a captain in the US Army Medical Corps and went to Vietnam where he served first as a general medical officer in a surgical hospital with the famed Blackhorse Regiment in Xuan Loc. He then spent six months in combat as battalion surgeon to 7/11 Artillery Battalion of the 25th Infantry Division in Tay Ninh. He was awarded two bronze stars: one for meritorious service and one for valor for heroism in ground combat operations.

Dr. Schwab completed a basic science course in ophthalmology at the Harvard School of Medicine. He then returned to Morgantown for a residency in ophthalmology at the WVU Medical Center and in 1972 began his work with the International Eye Foundation.

His appointments have included consultant ophthalmologist to the Malawi Ministry of Health, lecturer in ophthalmology to the Lilongwe School for Health Sciences in Malawi and to the Institute of Ophthalmology at the International Centre for Eye Health in London.

Dr. Schwab has been an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the WVU School of Medicine and a lecturer in ophthalmology at the Nakuru Medical Training Center in Kenya and the Haile Selassie I Medical Foundation in Addis Ababa.

A diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology, he has lectured at the Wilmer Institute; Johns Hopkins University; Indiana University School of Medicine; University of California’s Proctor Foundation; the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco; the Phoenix Indian Medical Center in Arizona; and at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine.

Dr. Schwab’s wife, Martha Harris Schwab, helped organize a rehabilitation center for victims of leprosy during their stay in Kenya. In Malawi, she taught school age children to play the recorder. Dr. Schwab says that her support and interest have been crucial to his ability to live and work in Africa.