Life of Thomas E. Park

Thomas E. Park, or Ed Park, aged 99, passed away from heart failure on Friday June 18, 2021 at AdventHealth Hospital, 1000 Waterman Way, Tavares, Florida 32778.  He was born on November 29, 1921 in Maryville, Tennessee and grew up in Pineville, Kentucky located in Bell County, Kentucky.  His parents were Richard Lelon Park and Nola Park, formerly Nola Morton.  He was a 1940 graduate of Pineville High School in Bell County and attended college at Georgia Tech University.

Ed Park worked in many different capacities and performed duties in widely varying careers, both full time and part time, in a working life that spanned 9 decades from the late 1930s to the one beginning in 2010.  As opposed to having a single professional theme, Ed wove together hands-on manufacturing work (from part assembly at small firms to steel manufacturing required for the automotive industry at Ford Motor Company), a traditional management position with another Fortune 500 company (General Electric), an airplane mechanic, an ongoing focus on financial investments, and a later-in-life retirement hobby of selling real estate.  Ed worked a portion of his jobs near Pineville Kentucky and another portion in Detroit, Michigan, but he spent the bulk of his working life in the Cleveland metropolitan area.

Ed graduated from Pineville High School in Bell County in 1940 and after working briefly joined the United States Army when the United States entered World War II.  During the war, Ed served as a sergeant and worked as a mechanic in Texas and Florida on the infamous P-51 Mustang Fighter aircraft, so critical to the Allied air superiority achieved during the war.  From that experience in his early 20s, Ed developed an interest in aviation that lasted his entire life.  After working in the Ford Motor Company Steel Plant in the late 1940s, Ed returned to Kentucky to work various short-term jobs, and while there met his future wife, Carlene Davis.  While settling into his approximate 20-year career at General Electric, Ed enhanced his interest in all forms of aviation, joining the EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association), pursuing a hobby of flying soaring planes (aircraft without engines requiring a tow to become airborne and landing by gliding downward navigating only air currents) finally obtaining his Private Pilot's VFR License in 1978 in Ohio.  He had many friends and associates who were pilots and fondly recalls his cross-country trip from California to Ohio as a co-pilot when his friend, who flew for US Airways, purchased an aircraft for his own private use and asked Ed to fulfill that key co-pilot role in flying the aircraft back to Ohio.  He participated in and thoroughly enjoyed the world renowned EAA annual airshows conducted in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Working in the small town of Pineville Kentucky after World War II was only for a short time, and though minimally important for his working career, it was of life-changing importance for his personal life.  In Pineville he met and married Carlene Davis (or Connie) on October 24, 1953, a small-town/country girl who became his wife for over 65 years.   Ed, though deferring marriage until nearly 31, always wanted children, and he and Carlene raised two sons (David and Stephen) and one daughter (Amy) in Maple Heights, Ohio, a Southeastern suburb of Cleveland Ohio.  Ed lovingly supported his children physically, emotionally, and spiritually in all of their pursuits and interests from early childhood through college and the rest of their lives.  When Connie's mother Bessie Davis lost her home in the major floods in Southeastern Kentucky of 1977 nearly wiping out the town of Pineville, Ed and Connie took Bessie into their home in Maple Heights, where she lived for the remainder of her life of 97 years.  After Bessie's passing Ed and Connie split their time between Mount Dora, Florida and Maple Hts., Ohio from the period from 2006 to 2017, when they decided to permanently reside in Florida.  In 2018, Connie's health began a slow decline after a severe fall and Ed lovingly cared for her while she was physically restricted for the last 11 months of her life.

Ed had many interests to occupy his non-working hours.  He always had an interest in running since his boyhood, but in his early 60s started aggressively and programmatically developing himself into a long-distance runner.  During the period from his mid-60s and into his 80s he competed in numerous races of 10 kilometers or longer, winning many times as the representative for his age group.  He kept pushing himself into extending the race lengths all the way up to running marathons.  He ran his first marathon in 1987 at the age of 66.  All of his long-distance running training was done outside while he lived in the Cleveland area, and he would continue training through all 4 seasons, including through cold Cleveland winters.  He developed the protocol of not cancelling his outdoor runs, until the outside temperature had fallen below the low teens.  There was a period when he was preparing for marathons that he would run in excess of 70 miles per week, and during his running career he completed at least 18 marathons.

Ed was an avid reader from a young age with a deep interest and an observing interpretative eye to World and American history, politics, economic and social developments, investment management, military history and biographies of the major history makers across time.  He had an inquisitive mind, could converse on many topics and in changing circumstances would always look into understanding Cause and Effect.  Ed maintained an enjoyment of people, particularly the give and take of humor, and would frequently entertain others with somewhat unpredictable and quirky comments that became his trademark for those who knew him.  But Ed was a deep thinker, who took civic responsibilities seriously and toward the end of his Cleveland years, would also work the long hours required to successfully conduct national and local elections where he typically was the senior member of the support team (similar to the frequency of being the senior participant in running events.)

Spiritual faith was always a centering value in both Ed and Connie's lives.  While in Cleveland they were members of the Forest Hill Church of Christ from the mid-1950s through their final move from Ohio to Florida in December of 2017.  In their years traveling back and forth between Ohio and Florida from 2006 through 2017 they retained their Cleveland ties, and also became established with the Orange Avenue congregation in Eustis.  In Cleveland, Ed served in the role as a church deacon and as an assistant to the Treasurer from the Fall of 1970 until he and Connie moved to Florida.  He was responsible for staffing the various personnel required to conduct the Sunday worship service for many years.  But informally, he performed numerous service tasks including providing transportation for non-ambulatory and non-driving members, delivering food, raking leaves for seniors (leading/training his sons on those occasions) and even helping with home repairs and installations based on needs as they arose.  Ed fulfilled a key role in projecting church inclusivity for those elderly people unable to do much for themselves, including conducting visits to the home-bound and to hospital patients, along with providing transportation help to/from medical appointments.  He developed the reputation for answering "Yes" to requests for help, for the many different types of needs that were expressed.

In addition to his wife Carlene (or Connie) Park, Ed was preceded in death by his parents, Richard and Nola Park, his eldest brother James Lowell Park and his son Dr. Richard Franklin Park, his youngest brother Richard Lelon Park, Jr. and his younger sister Ernestine P. Wiese.  He is survived by loving sons  David Gary Park (and wife Linda), Stephen Lynn Park (and wife Martha), and adoring daughter Amy Park Simoes (and husband Dorival Simoes).  He is survived by 4 grandchildren, Michael Park (and wife BabyJane) who have one son, Sandra Keeslar (and husband Matthew) who have one daughter and two sons, Mary Durland (and husband Thomas) who have two daughters and one son, and Samuel Simoes.  Ed is also survived by loving nephews and nieces, John Richard Park (and wife Lea Clay), James Michael Park (and wife Rebecca DeAtley), Susan Park Sorensen (and husband Kelly Bockius), William David Park (and wife Amanda McRitchie), Pamela Gayle Park and Kevin Wilson Park.  Family, friends and all others that Dad touched are invited to the ALLEN J. HARDEN FUNERAL HOME 1800 North Donnelly Street, Mount Dora FL 32757 on Wednesday, July 7, 2021 at 10:00 AM to be followed by a memorial service to celebrate his life at 11:00 AM.  Thomas E. Park will be buried with military honors at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell at 10:00 AM Thursday.