After serving four years in the Navy, Gary Van Cleve returned home to Yakima to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his life.

An advertisement in the local newspaper, seeking a candidate for an apprentice optician, caught is eye.

“I happened to get in the optical business by accident,” said Van Cleve, recalling the day he perused the newspaper in the mid 1950s. “I asked my mom, ‘What’s an optician?’ I had never heard of an apprentice optician. She didn’t know either.

“I figured if I became an optician, I’d never be out of work. Nobody knew what it was, so I would have no competition.”

Van Cleve was onto something.

Little did he know that the apprenticeship would lead to a fulfilling career that would provide a good life and keep him busy for six decades.

He’s still at it at age 80, carefully fitting eyeglass lenses and frames as he’s done for generations of clients in Oak Harbor.

The backdrop, however, has changed for Van Cleve, who now works three days a week for Vision Plus on Highway 20 in Oak Harbor after he and his wife, Charlie, spent 35 years running Van Cleve’s Optical on Pioneer Way.

Van Cleve closed his shop in March and came aboard Vision Plus’ eye care team soon after in a merger of a longtime independent and an eye-center that’s part of a regional chain.

“His expertise as an optician cutting glass, cutting lenses, fitting frames and selecting the right lenses … it’s just a world of improvement since he’s been over here,” said Mark Pyle, one of two optometrists at the Oak Harbor center.

The change came about after Charlie Van Cleve’s health declined following two strokes since January of 2014. She was recovering well from the first one when the second one struck in December, setting her back again.

She’s back on her feet, and recuperating well at home, but Gary Van Cleve decided it was time to slow down and spend a little more time looking after the woman he fell in love with and married 40 years ago.

He works Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and tries to get out to the golf course just down the road from their Oak Harbor home one day a week.

Charlie Van Cleve and her husband served as a team at Van Cleve’s Optical, and he delivered so many flowers to her that they put a refrigerated unit in their business to prolong their freshness.

“We’ve had a wonderful marriage,” Gary Van Cleve said.

Vision Plus has agreed to continue the sight program with the Oak Harbor Lions Club program that collaborated with Van Cleve’s Optical for decades. The program provides free eyeglasses for those in need.

Gary Van Cleve would like to continue to work as long as he and his wife have their health. They’ve both enjoyed getting to know customers and have built lasting friendships with many.

“The community has been so good to us,” Gary Van Cleve said.

When Van Cleve got his first paycheck from his new employer, he said it “really hit me that my era is gone.”

Still, there was no stopping a familiar routine.

He bought his wife flowers.

“She’s the one who made the business,” he said.