Richard W. Parsons

Richard Wade Parsons, a non-smoker all his life, died at his home on the Point of Pines on April 18, 2017 from complications of COPD. He was 93. His wife Irmgard ("Cyd") died in 2010. Dick leaves his daughter Christine B. Parsons, who shared his home, son Richard W. Parsons, Jr. (Christine A.) of Sanford, Florida, and daughter Carol P. Parsons Thomas (Timothy) of Fairport, New York. He will also be missed by grandchildren Thomas, Timothy and partner Alyssa, Stephen and Sara Parsons, and Katherine and Spencer Thomas; and his sister Patricia Parsons Willis (Thomas) of Warminster, Pennsylvania. Dick's brothers Earle Waldon Parsons, Jr. and Robert Wells Parsons predeceased him.

Dick was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey on January 18, 1924 to Earle Waldon Parsons, Sr. and Eleanor (Bowers) Parsons. Later, Dick's widowed father married Elsie Brown. The couple had two more children and moved to Pleasantville, New York.

Dick graduated from Pleasantville High School in 1942. He spent one misguided semester at MIT before the war rescued him; he was drafted into the US Army Air Force in January of 1943.

Dick's unit trained in Miami Beach, bunking in a luxury hotel on the beach and drilling on a golf course. He learned teletype repair at Chinook Field near Champaign, Illinois, and was trained as a lineman at Columbia Army Air Force Base in South Carolina. In later years Dick chuckled that he never again saw a teletype machine nor strung a wire.

Dick shipped out on Columbus Day 1943, heading first to Scotland and then to England. His unit landed in Normandy three weeks after D-Day. Dick was never in combat but served in a supply outfit in France, Belgium and Germany.

At the war's end Dick returned home and attended Lehigh University on the GI Bill, majoring in business administration. He graduated in 1949, then began graduate work at New York University. A friend told him of an opportunity in Washington, DC, so he left NYU to work for the Department of the Army.

During a lunchtime stroll across the Pentagon central plaza, a friend pointed out a pretty woman coming toward them and joked that Dick should marry her. Many months later Dick was paired with a woman as part of a group activity. He realized it was the same pretty woman, and he did eventually convince her to marry him.

Dick and Cyd married in 1957 and moved to Tonawanda, New York, a suburb of Buffalo, where they raised their family. Dick spent the rest of his working life employed by Marine Midland Bank as a municipal finance consultant. In middle age they relocated to Summit, New Jersey where Dick oversaw the municipal finance department at the bank's head office in New York City. In 1987 they retired to Englewood, to the house Cyd's parents had built in 1968.

Dick served as treasurer of the Point of Pines Homeowners Association for more than ten years. He was an avid coin and stamp collector, and loved books and movies about World War II. He enjoyed watching all sports, especially professional football, and was a steadfast Buffalo Bills fan.

Friends are invited to a memorial service at Lemon Bay Funeral Home on Buchans Landing in Englewood on Sunday at 12:30 pm, to be followed by a reception at the Lemon Bay Playhouse at 96 West Dearborn Street. Interment will be at the family plot in Hillside, New Jersey at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Dick's memory to Tidewell Hospice, Philanthropy Department, 5955 Rand Boulevard, Sarasota, FL 34238, or to Lemon Bay Playhouse, Building Fund, 96 West Dearborn Street, Englewood, FL 34223.