Adolf Fick was his uncle, godfather, and a famous physiologist, and influenced his nephew's studies in ophthalmology.

The younger Fick studied medicine in Würzburg, Zürich, Marburg, and Freiburg.

In 1884, Fick traveled to Germany to marry Marie, the daughter of Johannes Wislicenus; he later had eight children with her.

[1] In 1888, he constructed and fitted what was to be considered the first successful model of a contact lens: an afocal scleral contact shell made from heavy brown glass, which he tested first on rabbits, then on himself, and lastly on a small group of volunteers.

During World War I, Fick headed field hospitals in France, Russia and Turkey.