Gene “Poppy” Allen Park

Gene “Poppy” Allen Park, 79, of Marengo, passed away peace­fully with his fam­ily at his side on Wednes­day (July 25, 2012) at Wood­side Vil­lage in Mount Gilead.

He had a long strug­gle with can­cer. He was born at home in Mor­row County to the late Mar­ion and Lucy Uffer­man Park on March 15, 1933. He attended Johnsville High School, where he grad­u­ated in 1951. Shortly there­after, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and served his county in the Corp of Engi­neers in the Korean Con­flict. Upon his return from his ser­vice, he worked at HPM in Mount Gilead, where he met his wife, Norma (McGrath), and they were mar­ried in Novem­ber 1956. He left the Hydraulic to start his farm­ing career, which was always his first love. A true farm boy at heart his whole life. He later was employed in the con­struc­tion trade and put his engi­neer­ing tal­ents to work when he started his own con­struc­tion busi­ness and oper­ated it for 20 years until he retired due to his ill health. Gene also served his com­mu­nity as a Peru Town­ship trustee. He loved to oper­ate the town­ship road grader and truck plow­ing snow and work­ing for his friends and neigh­bors in the Peru com­mu­nity. He was truly a worka­holic and could usu­ally out­last any­one half his age, always look­ing for another project or cre­at­ing work to make sure every­one close to him was as busy as he was. Gene was always involved with his grand­chil­dren, with his ponies and their 4-H projects. Bar­ney and Dan, his prize Haflinger pony team, appeared many times with his faith­ful com­pan­ion Parker, the Dal­ma­t­ian, perched on the seat beside the sea­soned team­ster on his bright red hitch wagon that he built or show carts at the county fairs or in a local com­mu­nity parade along with the rest of his fam­ily. He also enjoyed many wagon trains with a lot of his “horse” friends using a cov­ered wagon that he had also built. At Christ­mas time, he loved to deck out his ponies with a grand set of Amish-made sleigh bells and always had the tape recorder play­ing car­ols while crowd­ing as many kids as would fit in the self-made red and white enclosed parade wagon. Gene would love it when his long-time friend would don his Santa suit and hitch a ride to make the Christ­mas card set­ting com­plete. Many of the chil­dren and adults alike that were touched by Gene, his fam­ily and his ani­mals knew him and his wife only as “Pop and Nan,” never quite sure of their real names. But we’re sure his real name is writ­ten in the Book of Life and he is prob­a­bly hitch­ing up his team once again, only this time to give his Lord a ride around the block.

Gene will be missed so much by his lov­ing wife, Norma; daugh­ter, Shirley Hat­field (Perry); son, Bill and his wife, Michelle; grand­chil­dren and great-grandchildren; three sis­ters, Betty Pre­ston, Jane Ulrey and Linda Mor­ris; one brother Mike; and many nieces, nephews, and in-laws.

He was pre­ceded in death by his par­ents; broth­ers, Clyde (Bud) and Tom; sis­ters, Mary Starkey, Donna Jones, Jo Sin­grey and Hazel Fisher; and bud­dies, Bar­ney, Dan and Parker.

The fam­ily will receive friends from 4 to 8 p.m. Fri­day, July 27, at the Snyder-Rodman Funeral Home, 307 E. High St., Ash­ley, where funeral ser­vices will be held at noon Sat­ur­day, July 28. Bur­ial, with mil­i­tary hon­ors pro­vided by mem­bers of the U.S. Army will fol­low in Ash­ley Union Cemetery.

Con­tri­bu­tions in his mem­ory may be made to the Mor­row County 4H Club.

Con­do­lences may be expressed to the fam­ily by vis­it­ing snyderfuneralhomes.com.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jul 25 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.