Mike Hoey began his craft talk by giving some family history and how he got his “paper name”. His great grandfather 50 something had an arranged marriage to a 18 old Chinese woman. When the grandfather arrived San Francisco Barbary Coast area he purchased the name “Hoey” from the railroad, which had an underground business of selling names of workers that had passed on so that an immigrant could instantly assume the name and become an American citizen. So the family named changed from Chinese to Irish.

When Mike grew up in Hacienda Heights the City was only about 2% Asian population. So he was not interested in learning the Chinese language so he did not want his parents to teach Chinese to him. (ending up in Arcadia Chinese would be a great value as it turns out.) Dr. Hoey received his doctorate degree in 1984 from the Illinois College of Optometry (so cold there, he has never gone back – He is a California kinda guy). He has extensive experience in the area of ocular therapeutics having worked in an ophthalmology practice. Dr. Hoey is a member of the American Optometric Association, California Optometric Association, San Gabriel Valley Optometric Society and is a USC Refractive Surgery Medical Associate. Mike is an active and committed member of the Arcadia Rotary Club and thanked members that helped when he was going through a divorce a few years ago with his ex-wife of 20 years. Service in Rotary is his passion.