Ada van Mourik-Noordenbos served the International Orthoptic Association (IOA) as the Council Representative for The Netherlands from 1984 to 1992. In this role, she helped connect Dutch orthoptics to the international community and contributed to IOA governance through active participation in multiple international Council meetings during the 1980s and early 1990s.
Within Dutch orthoptics she was recognised as an Honorary Member of the Dutch Orthoptic Association (NVvO). Ada was remembered by many as strict but fair, a teacher who held high standards, while remaining deeply committed to students and young colleagues. She taught and supervised orthoptic students at the Ooglijders Gasthuis on the Dondersstraat in Utrecht, a predecessor of today’s orthoptic training in Utrecht. Former students describe her as passionate, supportive, and empathetic, and many recall how she would stand up for junior colleagues when they faced criticism from more senior members of the profession.
Ada also practised orthoptics in Amsterdam at the Wilhelmina Gasthuis, where she worked in the clinical tradition associated with Professor R.A. Crone, an environment that shaped generations of Dutch orthoptists and formed part of the foundations of the later Amsterdam academic hospital landscape, including what became the Amsterdam Medical Center. In Amsterdam she was widely regarded as an experienced and highly skilled orthoptist. Her expertise extended beyond complex (incomitant) strabismus into the foundations of sensory binocular vision, including anomalous binocular vision, fixation disparity and fixation disparity curves, and careful sensory-motor analysis in challenging motility cases.
Her contribution reached beyond national borders through international scientific work. She co-authored peer-reviewed publications in international ophthalmology journals on complex ocular motility and diplopia, including topics such as strabismus surgery in thyroid eye disease (Graves’ orbitopathy). These publications reflect the same hallmark colleagues remember in her clinical work: precision, depth of understanding, and a drive to do justice to complex binocular vision problems.
Ada passed away on 20 February 2026, aged 82. The IOA extends its sincere condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues in the Netherlands and across the international orthoptic community. Her legacy lives on in the many orthoptists she trained, supported, and inspired.
– International Orthoptic Association
