Always Smiling in West Reading Meet Mark Dougherty, DDS

West Reading Peeps

Always Smiling in West Reading... Meet Mark Dougherty, DMD

By Denise Drobnick

Just a Wyo kid who is proud as hell of West Reading: that’s how Dr. Mark Dougherty, owner of Penn Avenue Dental, described himself when we met at his 645 Penn Ave office (you know the place – one of West Reading’s most iconic frog sculptures is on display there.) I would take it a step further and call him a transformer of not only smiles, but also of opportunities in our bustling downtown business district through his involvement with the West Reading Community Revitalization Foundation (WRCRF.) Promoting good health and a great business environment in West Reading has been his mission for decades.

Having lived his whole life in the Wyomissing area, Mark is a 1973 graduate of Wyomissing High School. His father, Dr. Harry Dougherty, was also a dentist and in fact started Penn Avenue Dental in 1953. Does this mean Mark was raised with the expectation of following in his father’s footsteps? Not at all. His first love was photography, and he is proud to have been, along with his best friend growing up, Fred Mogel, a photographer for the Colophon, Wyomissing High School’s yearbook. With an older sister who was an operatic singer who attended Julliard, Mark clearly had artistic genes. But following high school, Mark was encouraged by his father and his uncle, who was an executive with Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh, to pursue a career in banking and business. He reluctantly attended Penn State Berks campus, and after the first year told his father he wanted to quit; the thought of going to the huge PSU main campus the following year didn’t feel like a good fit. His father encouraged him to continue his schooling, so he transferred to Albright where he studied economics and business administration.