We've Been Providing Pottstown Eye Care Since The 1930's!
Few eye care practices have the depth of experience and tradition of excellence that is the hallmark of Dr. Joseph P. Ruskiewicz & Associates, Optometrists. Since first opening our doors in Pottstown, three generations of optometrists have made this practice into one of the premier offices for eye care, not just in Pottstown, but in all of Montgomery County. Amazingly, there are a number of current patients who have been seen by all three optometrists! This long-term relationship with patients makes it easy for patients to know that any problem they develop will be quickly indentified and remedied.
Dr. Franklin F. Myers Opens Our First Office On Hanover Street
Today we're known as the offices of Dr. Joseph P. Ruskiewicz & Associates, Optometrists, but it was Dr. Franklin F. Myers who founded our Pottstown optometry practice in the 1930's as one of the first eye doctors in the area. Our first office was at 7 N. Hanover Street, just a few doors north of High Street, and we served the vision and eye care needs of the Pottstown community at that location for almost 30 years.
1946: Dr. Elmer S. Friedberg, A WWII Hero, Joins The Practice
Dr. Elmer S. Friedberg
In 1946, Dr. Elmer S. Friedberg, a war hero who had served courageously in the European theater of World War II in what was then called the Army Air Force, joined with Dr. Myers in serving the vision needs of the Pottstown community. As an aviator, Dr. Friedberg was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for saving the lives of an entire air crew during a bombing mission over Germany in 1944. After the war he continued his service to our country by remaining in the Air Force reserves when it became a separate arm of the US military.
Dr. Friedberg, in his "spare" time after working during the day in our Pottstown eye care offices, served the Pottstown community by being active in the American Red Cross, the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Pottstown Creative Health, the Advisory Committee of the Pottstown Drug Rehabilitation Center, the Human Relations Commission, the Pottstown Civil Defense Committee, and the Service Academies Selection Board for the 5th Pennsylvania Congressional District, just to name a few. The list of professional organizations he was involved with is nearly as long: he served as the chairman of the American Optometric Association; the Pennsylvania Optometric Association; and the Berks County Optometric Society.
By the time of his retirement from the United States Air Force, Dr. Friedberg had obtained the rank of Brigadier General. When he died on April 17, 2009, Dr. Friedberg was buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors, and almost 100 citizens of Pottstown made the trip to Virginia attend the military funeral. The Pottstown Mercury covered the story on its front page, and the Lower Pottsgrove American Legion Post 244 (actually in Sanatoga) renamed their organization in his honor.
1985: Dr. Joseph P. Ruskiewicz Joins Our Eye Care Practice
By 1960 Dr. Myers had retired, the Hanover Street office had been demolished to make way for a new bank building, and Dr. Friedberg had moved our offices around the corner to 130 King Street. During the course of his activities at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Dr. Friedberg met Dr. Joseph P. Ruskiewicz, a full-time faculty member at the college. As a World War II buff, Dr. Ruskiewicz was naturally very interested in Dr. Friedberg's WWII experiences. The two doctors became good friends, and Dr. Friedberg invited Dr. Ruskiewicz to come to Pottstown and join his growing eye care practice, which Dr. Ruskiewicz did in 1985. Even after Dr. Friedberg retired in the 1990's, the two doctors maintained their close friendship and often met for lunch.
2009: We Move Our Offices To Sunnybrook Village
With a great deal of anticipation, in 2009 we moved from the historic district of Pottstown to Sunnybrook Village in the Sanatoga section of Lower Pottsgrove. The new office is twice the size of the previous location with the latest technologies. Patients can now easily find a frame that fits well and makes them feel good because they look great. With a new instrument called the Epic, getting the best possible vision is easy, even for those who think lens "choice 1" and "choice 2" always look the same. New technologies now allow earlier and more accurate detection of diseases like glaucoma, cataracts and macular degeneration.
2010 and Beyond: We're Here For You!
All of the technological improvements in eye care and vision improvement, however, do not take the place of the most important ingredients: a staff and doctors that care about their patients. The same warm concern and friendliness that the previous generations of doctors nurtured is still found today in the offices of Dr. Joseph P. Ruskiewicz & Associates, Optometrists, but in the most modern of facilities.
