A device having an elongated resilient body in the form of an open top trough with upwardly divergent side walls and open at the ends. One end of the body has integral lens gripping pads arranged one on each side wall. The pads are spaced from each other laterally of the body and are movable toward each other by flexure of the side walls. The pads are shaped so that, when they are engaged with a soft contact lens which is installed on the cornea of a human eye and then moved toward each other, they first flex the lens so that its posterior face disconforms to the cornea and air can enter therebeneath and release the adhesion of the lens to the cornea, and then support the lens by the device so that it can be removed from the eye by manipulation of the device. The opposite end of the body is arranged to support the lens in undistorted condition for insertion into the eye by manipulation of the device.