EYE SURGEON FORREST HULL DIES AT 93 IN CANADA.

Byline: Daily News

LANCASTER - Dr. Forrest Hull, a retired eye surgeon who was elected to the first City Council when Lancaster became a city in 1977, died at age 93 Sunday in Canada, where he and his wife, Marte, were visiting relatives.

Memorial services are pending for Hull, for whom a city park was dedicated in June. Services are expected to be held in Lancaster.

Hull continued seeing patients into his 80s at the Lancaster eye clinic he founded in 1954.

A graduate of the University of Southern California Medical School, he entered the Army Medical Corps and served during World War II, earning a Bronze Star while with the 75th Infantry Division during the Battle of the Bulge.

Hull was the first opthalmologist in the Antelope Valley, said former Antelope Valley Hospital spokeswoman Frankie Richards, with whom Hull had been writing his life story.

Hull retired from the Army Reserves as a colonel in 1971.

Hull taught at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles.

After his election to the council, Hull donated five acres near his eye clinic on Avenue J for a future City Hall. City Hall eventually was built downtown and the land lay vacant for more than 20 years, amid periodic debates over whether it should be turned into a park or sold.

The acreage was eventually traded in a complicated deal that resulted in a new 10-acre city park on 30th Street West north of Avenue M. The park was dedicated for Hull in June and the Hull family donated three granite benches.

``All I can say is this is a great day for my family and me,'' Hull said at the dedication.

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(color) Hull was elected to Lancaster's first city council in 1977.