When optometrist Dr. R. Whitman Lord and his wife, Lurue, opened their practice in Statesboro in 1978, it was just the two of them. When “Whit” Lord died Tuesday at age 62, Lord Eye Center had eight locations and about 100 employees from Dublin and Augusta to Savannah and Brunswick.In Statesboro, friends, business leaders and Lord Eye Center employees are noting the loss. Lord died at home after an extended illness caused by a brain tumor.