Dr. Mark Shull, DDS, 88, who practiced dentistry for 56 years in Ada, died on Jan. 2, 2021. 

The community recognized him in 2002, naming him Ada’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year. And, for over 55 years he was a member of the Ada Kiwanis Club.

Dr. Shull graduated from Capital University, the OSU Dental School, and served four and one-half years in the Army Dental Corps before opening his office in Ada in 1962.

Click here for his obituary. Several photos of Dr. Shull are at the bottom of this story.

The Icon featured Dr. Shull in several stories  and we’ve share some of the information here, written earlier by Monty Siekerman and Darlene Bower:

In November of 2108 following his official retirement, Dr. Shull announced that he was giving his dental chairs, instruments, and office equipment to Rotary, which will make them available to the people of Belize and Honduras.

U.S. dentists will use his equipment in Belize and Honduras. A spokesman for M.E.S.A. said the people there are “very appreciative” of the service provided by American dentists who will now have better equipment to work with.

When asked by Monty Siekerman how many patients he had, he answered: “Oh, I have no idea. I have many second and third generation patients.”

Prior to his retirement, in an interview with Darlene Bowers he said that he began as a pre-pharmacy student at Capital University in Bexley, but after the first semester decided he was then terrible at math so he changed to pre-med with a chemistry minor.

Mark’s dentistry service to Ada began in 1962 located above what was Reichert’s store where Alger and Robert Tipple’s father/son dentistry had been located. Mark moved his practice in 1969 to a new building across the street to 120 S. Main in 1969 where it remained until his retirement.

“I started with belt-driven hand pieces which were quite slow,” he recalled in his interview with Darlene.

“In the Army we had a few air-driven hand pieces, but not like now.... We used to recommend hard toothbrushes and thought that flossing did more harm than good."

He also recalled using no aprons or bibs during X-rays and not using masks or gloves, now all standard procedures. “Of course, we always washed hands frequently,” 

Quick to answer when asked what he enjoyed most about his occupation, “The people. I try to treat everyone as a friend. I’m too old to worry about titles. Many patients just call me Mark, and that’s fine with me.”