Advances in ophthalmology and the development of the corneal graft in the 1940s presented doctors with greater opportunities to treat patients with eye injury and disease. To take advantage of this medical breakthrough, the state of New York established the first eye bank in 1945. News of the procedure spread quickly across the country and the demand for donor eye tissue soon exceeded supply. Not all patients who needed a cornea transplant could receive one.

In North Carolina, a team of visionaries saw the possibilities of this medical procedure and organized to lobby the North Carolina legislature for the establishment of an eye bank. Lead by L. Byerly Holt, M.D. , the group persuaded the legislature to pass General Statute 90-216, making possible in October 1951 the founding of the North Carolina Eye & Human Tissue Bank (later to become the North Carolina Eye Bank). The new organization would become the fifth eye bank established in the United States.

Careful coordination among community partners ensured that tissue quickly and safely moved from one county to another, sometimes hundreds of miles away. In 1965, “Scotch” plaid coolers were used by the North Carolina Eye Bank, purchased and donated by the Lions Club. The American Red Cross, the State Highway Patrol, Piedmont Airlines and the Lions assisted in the fast work of tissue transportation both night and day in North Carolina.

Community partnerships played a key role in establishing the eye bank's headquarters. Winston-Salem was chosen as the central location in part because it also served as the headquarters of Piedmont Airlines. Piedmont served the larger cities of North Carolina and also offered to fly corneas from North Carolina to any location in the United States at no cost to the eye bank.

In March 1981, the EBAA began to certify all eye bank facilities to ensure that medical standards were being met across the eye banking system. After a thorough and detailed inspection from the EBAA Medical Standards Committee, the North Carolina Eye Bank was officially certified in October 1982, and has been re-certified on every subsequent inspection.

In July 1982, the Winston-Salem Host Lions Club donated a new slit-lamp microscope and specular microscope to the eye bank allowing it to process and store tissue in its laboratory until needed for use. Currently the eye bank evaluates and processes eye tissue 24 hours a day, seven days a week by trained technicians.

Through grants from the Kate B. Reynolds Health Care Trust, the eye bank established four satellite recovery offices in 1984. The offices were located in Durham, Greenville, Charlotte and Asheville. The eye bank's territory has since been redrawn, operating in Winston-Salem, Durham, Fayetteville and Greenville.

In 1996, the name of the North Carolina Eye & Human Tissue was officially changed to the North Carolina Eye Bank.

The purpose of the individual eye bank is to act as a clearing house between the persons needing corneal surgery and the persons who have willed their eyes to be used for surgery or research after death. This liaison service is most important as the eyes must be removed as soon as possible (usually no more than six hours after the donors’ death). Donor tissue is retrieved in over fifty hospitals spread throughout the state and is distributed to approximately 45 ophthalmic surgeons in North Carolina for transplant purposes. Tissue not utilized in the state is shipped to other states as well as to some foreign countries for utilization.

To accomplish its goals over the last 50 years, the eye bank has relied on the help of many people who gave generously of their services to complete the link between the donor who has pledged his/her eyes and the patient who receives this gift of sight. In the past, much credit was due to physicians, trained licensed embalmers, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, physician assistants and medical students who were trained in the retrieval of eye tissue. These trained volunteers aided the eye bank technicians a great deal and were called upon night and day to render service. Currently all retrievals are done by trained eye bank technicians and personnel.

Since its first formal meeting in 1951 the North Carolina Eye Bank has kept pace with the steady progress of eye banking. It maintains a keen sensitivity to changes in ophthalmology and is very active in the EBAA. The eye bank maintains close working relationships with eye banks all across the nation and in countries with an established an eye banking system. Representatives of eye banks from Asia, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union have visited the North Carolina Eye Bank for assistance in training of their technical staff, and in establishing their own labs and eye bank.