Gehring, Eeva-Liisa Marjaana (Martola) prominent Wellesley, MA ophthalmologist and surgeon and beloved wife, mother and grandmother, died in West Newton, MA on Sunday, September 21, 2025. She passed from complications of heart failure, peacefully and surrounded by family. She was 92.
Dr. Martola, who practiced under her maiden name, was born in Helsinki, Finland in 1932 to Oma Veikko and Helka Maria Martola. She graduated the University of Helsinki Medical School in 1957, and was subsequently an intern and resident at various local Helsinki hospitals from 1957 - 1960. She came to the United States to be a Fellow in Ophthalmology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston in 1960, where she practiced throughout her career, and she earned her permanent Massachusetts Licence in 1967.
She met her future husband, Dr. John Gehring, also an ophthalmologist, in the Mass. Eye and Ear cafeteria. The two were married in 1962 in Ann Arbor, MI, and they lived in Lowell, MA before moving to Wellesley, MA in 1966, where they welcomed and raised three sons.
As well as practicing at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Dr. Martola maintained a private ophthalmology practice at the Fraser Medical Building on Washington Street in Wellesley with Dr. Gehring and another colleague, Dr. Byron S. Lingeman, starting in 1967. She and Dr. Gehring retired together in 2000 and moved to West Newton in 2004.
Dr. Martola was one of very few practicing female doctors in the 1960’s, and as such she was a trail blazer in her professional life. A great mentor to her throughout her career was Dr. Claes Dohlman, a fellow trailblazer who created the Cornea Service at Mass. Eye and Ear, and who was a fellow Nordic immigrant born in Sweden. Dr. Martola was a co-author with Dr. Dohlman and others on numerous published papers in medical journals.
Dr. Martola was an avid X-country skier, a legacy of her native Finland. She was fluent in four languages, including Swedish and German. She and Dr. Gehring were world travelers and opera aficionados, attending many performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in particular. In addition, she was a prolific donor to many charities and causes, especially focused on education, medical research, and the advancement of science.
Dr. Martola is survived by her three sons, John C. of Hadley, MA, Erik W. of West Roxbury, MA, and Christopher R. of Bedford, MA; by her two daughters-in-law, Renu Gehring of Hadley, MA, and Julie Wright of West Roxbury, MA; and by her four grandsons, Neil and Jason of Hadley, MA, and Carl and William of West Roxbury, MA.
Memorial services for Dr. Martola will be held at George F. Doherty & Sons Funeral Home, 477 Washington St., Wellesley on Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 2 pm. There will also be a memorial service at the Scandinavian Living Center, 206 Waltham Street, West Newton, MA 02465, where she lived for the last 20 years of her life, with date and time to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Scandinavian Living Center at www.slcenter.org/donations.