Sanford "Sandy" Greenberg was a 20-year-old junior at Columbia University and roommates with close friend Art Garfunkel when, in 1960, his vision mysteriously disappeared. Following emergency surgery for long-undiagnosed glaucoma, the failed operation in 1961 to repair Greenberg's sight instead left him completely blind.
But Garfunkel not only convinced his pal, who was depressed and unwilling to return to school, to come back to Columbia — he turned into Greenberg's inseparable and loving guide, reading textbooks aloud and becoming his eyes.
"It lifted me out of the grave," Greenberg told PEOPLE in July in an interview about his memoir, Hello Darkness My Old Friend, a reference to Simon & Garfunkel's mega-hit single "The Sound of Silence."
Greenberg went on to earn his MBA and a PhD from Harvard University and to serve in the Johnson administration before leading a life as an accomplished inventor, businessman and philanthropist.
But from the time he learned he would never see again in a Detroit hospital room, Greenberg had a vision that has since filled his days: to end blindness.
On Monday night, he and his wife, Susan, his high-school sweetheart, announced that 13 researchers across the globe will share the $3 million Sanford and Sue Greenberg Prize to End Blindness, for their pioneering work.
"I sometimes surprise myself," Greenberg said during the virtual awards ceremony, "when I call myself 'the luckiest man in the world.' "
The late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Greenberg's friend and next-door neighbor for 40 years in Washington, D.C., was also honored in a moving tribute. Ginsburg appeared in a video recorded last June and read excerpts from the forward she wrote for Greenberg's memoir.
"I was captivated by his bright mind, ready wit and indomitable spirit," said Ginsburg, who died in September after a recurrence of pancreatic cancer. "I raise my glass to Sandy Greenberg, who chose life in all its vibrancy."
Garfunkel, too, paid homage to Greenberg after an emotional montage of still photos documenting moments of their 60-year friendship as "The Sound of Silence" played.
"I've known Sandy a long time: I knew him before he lost his sight; I knew him when he was plunged into darkness, when he was forced to navigate an unfamiliar world," Garfunkel said."And I've known him in the decades since, as he's built a career filled with extraordinary achievements and a life defined by love and success."
"I have seen his courage, his determination and his grit," Garfunkel, now 79, said of Greenberg, 80. "So when he said he was committed to ending blindness for all, I knew that the end of blindness couldn't be far away."
The award recipients include a team of scientists whose work has made it possible for the first time to prevent and reverse a form of hereditary blindness: Drs. Gustavo Aguirre, Jean Bennett and Dr. Albert Maguire, all of the University of Pennsylvania; and Dr. William Hauswirth of the University of Florida; and their team members.
Sandy and Susan Greenberg, said Bennett, "have brought the fantasy of conquering blindness to a reality."
As Greenberg thanked the friends and supporters who spoke, including novelist Margaret Atwood, Grammy Award-winning jazz great Diane Schuur (who is blind), Al Gore, Michael Bloomberg, artist Frank Stella and others, he said: "For me, this evening began at a Detroit hospital 60 years ago, when an eminent surgeon tried to save my eyes from misdiagnosed glaucoma."
"The next morning, I lay in my hospital bed wrapped in a darkness I could never could have previously imagined. A literal darkness. It was shocking," he continued. "A promise made on that bed as my grieving mother sat by me — a vow to end blindness for everyone, for all time — was my lifeline out of that hole."
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