Dentistry

Richard Cook Mears, 93, a retired Bala Cynwyd dentist who was a designer of dentures for children, died Thursday at the Dock Woods Community in Towamencin. Dr. Mears, who had resided at the retirement community for the last five years, was born in Sharon Hill and later lived in Ambler, graduating from Ambler High School. He was a pre-dental student at Pennsylvania State University and received a doctor of dental surgery degree from Temple University School of Dentistry in 1930.

Hugh Francis Robinson, 76, a longtime South Jersey dentist who was a member of Camden Catholic High School's 1942 state championship basketball team, died of complications from cancer last Wednesday at Virtua-West Jersey Hospital Marlton. Dr. Robinson, a Philadelphia native, had lived in Marlton for the last 13 years and previously resided in Pennsauken and Camden. He practiced dentistry in Camden and Pennsauken for more than 37 years before retiring in the late 1980s. Dr. Robinson became one of the first dentists to work in a mobile dental trailer, attending to indigent children in Camden County, in the 1950s and performed dental examinations for schoolchildren into the late 1970s.

Robert A. Waite, 79, a West Philadelphia dentist for 43 years who spoiled his daughter with candy on the condition that she brush her teeth after eating it, died Oct. 2 of a stroke at Chestnut Hill Hospital. He lived in West Mount Airy. "My father knew I had a sweet tooth. He worked long hours, and before he left his office, he would call me and ask if I wanted a treat," said daughter Roberta Lites. "My favorite was 'Now and Later' - probably the worst candy for your teeth. " Born in 1929, the son of a steel-mill worker, Dr. Waite was raised by his eldest sister in Youngstown, Ohio, after his mother died when he was 9. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1951 from Youngstown State University, he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Dr. Waite was a paratrooper and served stateside until being discharged in 1953.

Joshua Simon Somers, 97, of Lafayette Hill, a retired dentist who became a local celebrity for his walks along the Wissahickon, died Saturday at his home. Dr. Somers practiced dentistry for 64 years in an office in his home in the Logan section of Philadelphia. After his wife, Jean Davidow Somers, died in 1992, he retired to Lafayette Hill and discovered a new occupation - walking on Forbidden Drive, along the Wissahickon Creek, and looking for conversation around every bend. "When I moved up here, I didn't know a soul," he told a newspaper reporter last year.

Paul John Marcucci Sr., 65, a dentist and church choir director who founded a Williamstown Christian retreat called the Farm, died Friday at his home in Williamstown after a four-year struggle with cancer. Dr. Marcucci was an 18-year-old violin player when he first directed a choir. He later directed choirs at churches throughout South Jersey and Philadelphia. His final performance came last month at Faith Bible Church in Vineland. Dr. Marcucci established the Farm in 1960 on a 60-acre property near Williamstown that was once used as a chicken farm.

Joseph F. Leary, 91, a dentist who made his patients smile for 46 years and cofounded the Conshohocken Historical Society, died Thursday of complications from pneumonia in Montgomery Hospital in Norristown. A lifelong resident of Conshohocken Borough who married the former Anne Carroll of Norristown in 1940, Dr. Leary predicted his "one-horse town" would become the "in" place to live, said his youngest daughter, Beth Hegedus. "Daddy told me in 1960 that Conshohocken would be the place to live in the year 2000," Hegedus said.

More than 50 local corporations and public institutions will be fielding teams of employees Sunday in the March of Dimes' annual walk through Camden County to raise money for combating birth defects. The 30-kilometer hike through seven Camden County communities is expected to raise $250,000, more than 10 times the amount collected three years ago, said Stephen C. Leonard, executive director of the South Jersey March of Dimes chapter. Almost 45,000 people in Camden County have signed pledges promising to contribute money to people taking part in the walk.

Marcia Leek and Mary Holben have been named the recipients of the De Martini Foundation's exceptional-teacher awards. Leek, a department supervisor and chemistry teacher at Timber Creek High School in Lindenwold, will receive $2,000, and Holben, a culinary-arts teacher at the Sicklerville campus of Camden County Technical Schools, will receive $1,000. Leek has spent her entire career in the Black Horse Pike Regional School District, first at Triton, then Highland and now at the new Timber Creek school.

Pepperidge Farm Inc.'s plant in Downingtown was one of 10 Pennsylvania firms to receive a regional Job Creator Award from the state Department of Labor and Industry. Pepperidge Farm, which makes frozen-food products such as puff pastry and Texas toast at the Downingtown plant, was cited for its accomplishments in job creation, hiring and training employees, and community service. "The Pepperidge Farm Downingtown plant is a Pennsylvania economic success story that benefits people around the country," said Labor and Industry Secretary Johnny J. Butler, who presented the award Oct. 25 at a luncheon at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg.

Tattered and water damaged, a New Jersey country doctor's daily journal from the 1820s provides a fascinating, sometimes gruesome glimpse of medicine long before anesthesia, antibiotics and formal medical training. The daybook that Dr. Seymour Halsey kept from 1824 through 1827, when he practiced in Sparta, Sussex County, was recently discovered in the basement of the Summit Medical Group and donated to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Libraries here. "These are great records, because they show what he did in this time period," said Barbara S. Irwin, managing librarian of the libraries' special collections.