Dr. Melvin R. Carlson, MD

Dr. Melvin Carlson founded Puget Sound Eye Care in 1978, opening at 2501 N 45th Street in Wallingford. His choice of neighborhood was deliberate: Wallingford was a walkable, family-oriented community where a doctor could know his patients by name, watch their children grow up, and track changes in their vision over decades. That continuity of care was, from the beginning, the point.

Over the following twenty-five years, he built a practice that grew from a single exam room into a five-doctor, two-location operation — while retaining the character of a neighborhood practice. He hired carefully, trained attentively, and measured success not by patient volume but by the number of families who stayed with the practice across generations.

He is semi-retired now — but still present. He sees a reduced schedule of established patients and remains a visible part of the practice. His son, Dr. Matt Carlson, now leads the clinical team. Melvin considers that the right outcome, and he shows up to the office because he means it.