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CAPE MAY COUNTY MAGAZINE 17 AUGUST '83

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Optometry Pays the Bills

But Music is First Love

By BARBARA METZLER NORTH CAPE MAY - Mark Petrelli would rather be tickling the ivories than peering at irises. Optometry is nis profession; piano his passion. “I grew up with nothing in my head other than I was going to be a concert pianist,” he said, sitting among the eye examination equipment at his Townbank road office, an eye chart shining over his left shoulder. While in high school in his hometown of Springfield Pa., Petrelli was both an outstanding piano and baseball player, something he calls a “weird combination." The piano teacher, he said, was always afraid that he would hurt his hands while playing ball, and the baseball coach thought pianos were for girls. Petrelli, 32, won a lot of awards for his musical talent while at Springfield High. He especially remembers the Kiwanis International Key Club Convention. The competition drew students from across the United States. "IT WAS LIKE the Democratic convention," he said. Each student was holding a sign for his or her state. Petrelli chose to perform "Hungarian Rhapsody,” a number with an especially strong octave section. Unfortunately, the piano was on wheels, and no one had bothered to fasten it down. As Petrelli began to pound out the notes of the octaves, the piano started to roll forward. Undaunted, the young pianist played with the right hand and pulled his bench with the left. Finally someone from the front row realized his predicament and lodged the piano with a few phone books. "At the time it was a nightmare,” said Petrelli, laughing. He won the competition. AS A STUDENT, Petrelli played with the Philadelphia Orchestra and with the Germantown Symphony. It seemed only natural that Juliard School of Music should offer him a scholarship to study there, but Petrelli’s parents, especially his mother, were skeptical. “She couldn’t see her son being a musician," he said, adding that

at the time most musicians were experimenting with drugs and perhaps his mother’s fears lay there. When Petrelli’s old high school buddies can back from their first year of college and found their friend “still tickling the keyboards,” Petrelli’s career decision was made. His mother took the rented Steinway back, and Petrelli accepted a baseball scholarship to Temple University. After that, he said, there was no piano, just books. PETRELLI RECEIVED a bachelor's degree in liberal arts and psychology from Temple, and went on to get a master’s in biology and doctorate in optometry. He was also in ROTC, which took him into active duty in Vietnam for two years after he completed his studies. He served as, a captain in the medical corp, and said it was very much like the TV series M'A'S'H. ^ “As much as I rebelled against it, I enjoyed my stint in the army,” he added. “It was like going to camp, except the Vietnam War was going on/' It was after the two years in Vietnam that Petrelli decided to begin his practice in Cape May County. He had never been south of Wildwood. It was his father and stepmother who suggested that Petrelli might want to settle in Cape May. They had a summer home in the area and knew that North Cape May needed an optometrist. “I WANTED to stay in the ser-, vice,” said Petrelli. “I was going to make it a career. The pay was good. I was single. When you’re in the service you almost feel like there isn’t any other way to live.” Petrelli decided to give private practice a one-year trial. He has been here for 10, and now sees over a thousand patients. “Gosh, do you believe that?" he asked. Private practice was okay, he said. “It was better than okay.” While living in Cape May County, Petrelli’s single status also changed. He met nis wife Fulvia in the mid-70s. An artist and model, Fulvia appears in Petrelli’s Herald and