Thomas J. Byrd, MD, graduated from Trenton High School in three years as Salutatorian and went on to the University of Michigan where he achieved both Bachelor of Science and Medical Doctor degrees in a special six-year program called Inteflex. He received his medical degree and went on to a year of internal medicine internship and a three-year ophthalmology residency at Henry Ford Hospital. Dr. Byrd went on to the finest cornea fellowship in the world, a rigorous two-year program at the Louisiana State University (LSU) Eye Center in New Orleans. He trained there under internationally-known corneal and refractive surgery pioneers, Dr. Herbert E. Kaufman and Dr. Maguerite McDonald.