In Memory

Buzzy Parke

Buzzy Parke

 



 
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10/18/09 11:23 AM #1    

Tammy Belville

I dont think their isnt a time that he was never smiling.. I am sure he is smiling down at us today...

10/22/09 08:58 PM #2    

Marcia Wilson (Hermann)

Walker Parke 4/25/94
Mt. Wake Fall Mountaineering
Todd Brendan McCann 4/25/94 Mt. Wake Fall Mountaineering

Climbers Die Near McKinley: 2 Girdwood Men Fall 1,500 Feet On Wake
By Craig Medred, ADN 04/26/94

The Denali National Park climbing season got off to a deadly start Sunday when two Alaska climbers fell to their deaths while descending 9,000-foot Mount Wake, the National Park Service reported Monday. Park service spokesman John Quinley identified the dead as Walker Parke, 36, and Todd Brendan McCann, 26. Both were residents of Girdwood. Along with climbing companion Michelle Morseth, the two men had been retreating from a camp at 5,700 feet when the accident happened.

Denali National Park climbing ranger Roger Robinson said the two men had made two descents by rope down the mountain from their camp when something went wrong, and they fell an estimated 1,500 feet to their deaths.

Details on exactly what caused the fall were sketchy, Quinley said, although he added that rangers have ruled out the possibility the men were swept away by avalanching snow or ice.

"They're not exactly sure of the circumstances," Quinley said. The climbers were unroped at the time of the fall, he said. One possibility, Quinley said, is that one climber lost his balance on a ledge and knocked the other off with him.

Rangers did not learn of the fatal accident until Monday afternoon when a message was relayed to an airplane flying through The Great Gorge of the Ruth Glacier.

Quinley said another pair of climbers camped near the base of Mount Wake had recovered the bodies and come to the aid of Morseth, who was uninjured and evacuated to the ranger station in Talkeetna on Monday night. The names of the climbers who helped were unavailable Monday night, as were the age and home town of Morseth.

"They were another group that was more or less down on the Ruth that was going to another peak," Quinley said.

The bodies of Parke and McCann were recovered by a park service aircraft Monday evening.

Mount Wake is a tower of rock and ice about 15 miles southeast of Mount McKinley. It is one of a series of peaks that rise like walls for thousands of feet alongside The Great Gorge.

Many are popular with ice climbers looking for difficult, technical routes. "It's a pretty challenging peak," said mountaineer Todd Miner, head of the Wilderness Studies Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage. The deaths of Parke and McCann came just as park service rangers were beginning preparations for the 1994 climbing season. Chief mountaineering ranger J.D. Swed was on the West Buttress of Mount McKinley, helping put up the agency's climbing camp, when he learned of the accident, Quinley said. Rangers had been hoping for an uneventful climbing season on McKinley and nearby peaks this year. Only one climber died during the 1992 season.



10/24/09 10:00 PM #3    

Jerry Adams

Buzz, can anyone say they didnt think he enjoyed life to the fullest? I spent alot of time w/Buzz and his mom at their house and was surprised how they could argue but love each other so much too. Ms Parke had this tuff persona at school but was a softie at home. Buzz, along w/Brian Bush and David Downs witnessed to me and got me going to church at Unity. I joined their band of a misfit church basketball team and we traveled all over playing our hearts out. Buzz was a good friend in high school. Didnt see him much once he went to Georgetown and then on back to his native Alaska.
I've spoken to his sister (Timi I think) who was living in Mt. Sterling. Buzz had a daughter with the young woman he lived with in Alaska. She should be a teenager by now. I'll try to get new info and possibly a picture sometime.
The climbing accident as told to me by Timi was actually a premonition on Buzz's part. He had committed to join the other guy and girl on the climb, but was having second thoughts. He went to the Dr a few days before but wasnt really ill enough to prevent his going, and he knew that if he backed out, it would cancel the trip.
Rest in peace Buzz and Pat.

10/25/09 03:47 PM #4    

Pam Stapleton (Walter)

Buzz and Brian Bush were two of my favorite lunch pals.. If I had a nickle for every time I let them in front of me in line, I would be a rich woman.

10/29/09 09:33 PM #5    

Marcia Wilson (Hermann)

From the Daily Independent by our own '75 graduate
Mark Maynard


American Legion Post 76 sponsoring event at Central Park

Mark Maynard

Ashland — American Legion Post 76 Commander Larry Crum is dipping into the past for a patriotic idea.

The American Legion will sponsor a Walk for Old Glory on Nov. 7 in Central Park from 1 to 3 p.m.

Crum came up with the idea while going through some of the Legion’s clippings. One that caught his attention was 40 years ago when the American Legion started a 5K run called Run for Old Glory.

He came across a photograph of Buzz Parke, a 1975 graduate of Paul G. Blazer High School, leading the run by carrying an American flag.

Parke, an avid runner, wanted to carry the flag in honor of his father, Capt. Walker Million Parke, who was killed Nov. 5, 1964, in a helicopter accident at Fort Bragg, N.C., while waiting assignment for Vietnam.

“I just thought that was great, that he wanted to carry the flag in honor of his father’s service to the country,” Crum said. “The pride he had that day must have been overwhelming.”

Crum did more investigating with frequent trips to the Boyd County Public Library. Buzz Parke was killed in 1994 when an earthquake hit while he was ice-climbing on Denali Park in Alaska.

Crum considered the idea of reviving the 5K run but after talking with city officials considered making it a walk instead.

Ashland once had a Veterans Day parade but that ended in 1968.

The idea of the walk will be to show appreciation for the many veterans who have served throughout the years.

Anyone who wants to participate can come to the park at 1 p.m., near the big baseball diamond. There will be an opening session at 12:30 p.m. with the Boyd County Navy JROTC presenting colors.

“We’d like to have a walk of the community carrying flags in support of Old Glory,” Crum said.

Flags will also be handed out by the Legion, he said.

A reception will follow at the finish under the largest flag at the American Legion.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.

11/01/09 01:01 PM #6    

Sueann Maynard (Burns)

What an awesome guy and an even better friend! He is surely missed!

11/07/09 11:28 PM #7    

Bill Hornbuckle (Hornbuckle)

Buzz was, to me, as good a person as we had in our class. I remember running track and cross country with him, Bush, and Hash.

I hope his daughter is doing well, and it would be great to hear an update on her.

11/15/09 03:43 PM #8    

Marcia Wilson (Hermann)

Walking for Old Glory

Event at Central Park draws a crowd

Kenneth Hart

Ashland — Saturday’s Walk for Old Glory at Central Park was an emotional experience for Timi May.

And, why wouldn’t it be? After all, it was an old newspaper clipping showing a photograph of her late brother that inspired the event.

Larry Crum, commander of American Legion Post 76, which sponsored the event, said he was going through some of the post’s files when he came across the photo, taken by former Independent photographer Jim Martin. It showed May’s brother, Walker “Buzz” Parke Jr. leading a 5K run the Legion used to sponsor called the Run for Old Glory.

Buzz Parke, a 1975 graduate of Paul G. Blazer High School, was carrying an American flag. He did so, Crum said, in honor of his father, Walker Parke Sr., who was killed in a 1964 helicopter crash at Ft. Bragg, N.C., while awaiting deployment to Vietnam.

Buzz Parke would later move to Alaska. He was killed in 1994, at the age of 36, when an earthquake hit while he was ice-climbing in Denali National Park, Crum said.

Inspired by the photo of the young man, Crum said he considered reviving the 5K run as a means of showing respect to the flag and appreciation to all the veterans who have served over the years. Ultimately, though, he said he decided a walk would be more appropriate.

Crum said it took awhile for him and other members of the legion to figure out that the runner in the photograph was Buzz Parke. Finally, he said, former Post 76 Commander Jim Rodman recognized the young man as his cousin’s son.

Crum said he was aware that May’s husband, Bert, was once mayor of Mt. Sterling, and he was able to contact her through him.

“It just goes to show how one life can touch so many people,” he said.

May, who lives in Mt. Sterling and works as a docent at the University of Kentucky Art Museum in Lexington, said she was deeply touched by the Legion’s decision to hold the event in her brother’s honor.

She also said she felt the walk was a great way to honor the memory of her father, and of all soldiers who have paid the ultimate price for freedom.

About 75 showed up for Saturday’s event and walked several laps around the park on a crisp, gorgeous autumn afternoon.

Crum said the Legion received a very nice, and very touching, surprise in the mail just prior to the event.

A box arrived at the post, and in it, he said, was a folded American flag, along with a note stating that it had been flown over Afghanistan by an American soldier there.

The soldier, U.S. Army Maj. Paul D. Blevins, had seen a story about the Walk for Old Glory while reading the online edition of The Independent and wanted to do something to thank the post for its efforts, Crum said.

“It touched us,” he said. “It brought tears to all our eyes.”



01/22/10 10:46 PM #9    

Connie Griffith (Sloan)

I love you Buzzy. I have so many good memories of our Unity Baptist Church Youth Group. We will meet again someday. Love, Connie

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