Memorial Wall

Honoring Those Who Have Gone Before Us

Over the years, we at PRO have consistently been asked to create a special place to honor loved ones who’ve lost their battle with Parkinson’s – a place of remembrance and healing for those who are left behind. Our response is the Memorial Wall.

Recent Memorial Wall Additions

Margaret “Peggy” Rich

Margaret “Peggy” Rich

June 25, 1926 - January 17, 2024

Margaret “Peggy” Rich, of Duluth, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 surrounded by her family.

Peggy was born in Duluth on June 25, 1926 to Jasper and Margaret Barncard. She was the first woman to graduate with a dual degree in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota. She received an offer to attend Columbia University on a Fellowship. She was not able to attend, however, and later graduated with a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. She spent her educational career in a variety of teaching and administrative roles within the Duluth Public Schools. She particularly enjoyed working with students who had special needs. Her last position was working with the Teen-Parent Program where she developed strategies, particularly around math, that would prepare and empower young moms with the life skills they needed to go forward.

She married Joseph Rich on July 9, 1947 and raised 3 children. Together, they shared many memories at the family cabin on Rose Lake and through their extensive travels throughout the world. Her love and support for Joe was steadfast during his 28-year battle with Parkinson’s prior to his death in 2012.

Peggy was preceded in death by her husband, Joe, sister Joanne, her parents and two grandchildren.

She is survived by her daughter, Sue (Steve) Slotness; twin sons, Jim F. (Joan) and John A. (Brenda); six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.

Remembering Margaret “Peggy” Rich

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Marianne Dunn Wofford

Marianne Dunn Wofford

December 19, 1949 - January 20, 2024

Marianne Dunn Wofford died on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, after a brave battle with Parkinson's disease.

A loving Granny to Beck and Keane, a steadfast friend and a businesswoman of integrity, she loved to cook and entertain. Her homes reflected her unique taste and love of colorful, lively artwork. Likewise, her gardens were full of texture and color, providing visitors relaxing warm surroundings in which to commune.

Marianne was born in Searcy, Ark., on Dec. 19, 1949, the sixth of seven children. She attended college at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. After marrying, she relocated to San Antonio, where she lived for 14 years and served as a bank officer at Alamo National Bank. In 1984, she moved to Kerrville, Texas, and received her bachelor's degree in business at Schreiner College. While studying there, she also worked as an alumni liaison for the Hill Country College Fund.

She spent the next 22 years as an investment advisor with A.G. Edwards and Morgan Stanley before opening her own Ameriprise Financial office (Collum, Wofford and Associates) with Dawn Collum in 2012. She took great pleasure and care in helping her clients plan their financial futures.

Marianne believed in serving her community and did so on numerous boards and committees, most significant of which was fundraising for the Dietert Center and co-chairing the Hill Country College Fund. She was also the first woman president of the Rotary Club of Kerrville, and served as an elder at First Presbyterian Church.

After being diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2014, Marianne, as was typical, found a way to turn a negative into a positive by helping others. With help from a few close friends and support from Peterson Regional Medical Center, she set about creating a Parkinson's support group. Its monthly attendance quickly grew and continues to provide information and support to patients and caregivers. While servicing on the support group board, she helped bring to Kerrville the beneficial Parkinson's therapy programs Big and Loud and Rock Steady Boxing. She received an award for this work from the San Antonio Parkinson's Association.

Marianne was preceded in death by her parents, O.L. Dunn and Blyss Gentry Dunn; as well as brothers, Gentry Owen Dunn, Danny Lane Dunn and Michael Duane Dunn; and sisters, Carolyn Blyss Dunn Householder, Pamela Jean Dunn Griffin and Rita Dunn Sultan. As adults, she and her sisters took "Sisters' Trips" and had so much fun that their brothers decided they would travel along as well.

She is survived by her son, Bryan David Wofford, his wife, Erin Mosty Wofford, and her beloved grandsons, Beck Scott Wofford and Keane Emmet Wofford, all of Center Point, Texas. She is also survived by many nieces and nephews, all who brought great joy to her life. She was affectionately known as "Granny" to many great-nieces and -nephews.

Marianne unfailingly touched lives with her kind spirit and is leaving many loved ones and friends to honor her life.

Remembering Marianne Dunn Wofford

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Dr. Walter Jackson Stark

Dr. Walter Jackson Stark

January 1, 1943 - February 29, 2024

Dr. Walter Jackson Stark, a Johns Hopkins eye surgeon and teacher who treated heads of state, Supreme Court justices and sports luminaries, died of Parkinson’s disease complications Feb. 29 at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida. The North Baltimore resident was 81.

A physician who also found time to remove the cataracts on an aged National Aquarium sea turtle, he had six Supreme Court justices as patients, along with O.J. Simpson and Saudi princes.

Bert Jones, who as a Baltimore Colts quarterback was the 1976 MVP said: “Walter examined me in my rookie year. We became great friends and often went goose hunting on the Eastern Shore.”

Born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Dr. Stark was the son of Walter Jackson Stark Sr., a banker who went on to be administrator of the Dean McGee Eye Institute, and Lucy Anderson Stark. After his mother’s death, he was raised by Mary Lou Moorman.

A 1960 graduate of the old Harding High School, where he was a state champion swimmer, he attended the University of Oklahoma and graduated from its College of Medicine.

He married his high school sweetheart, Polly Allen. They met at the old Split-T, an Oklahoma City restaurant.

He did his residency and fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute and joined the faculty of the Institute in 1973. He was named professor of ophthalmology and director of corneal and cataract services.

“My dad squeezed 10 lifetimes into one. He never left the state of Oklahoma until he was 18 and then he went on to travel and change lives around the world,” said a daughter, Melissa Stark Lilley. “People would come up to us all the time with stories of how he restored their gift of sight.

“He would take us to the Baltimore Colts games and I would go with him to the locker room at halftime when he checked the players’ eyes. He was my introduction to the NFL,” said his daughter, Melissa, an NBC “Sunday Night Football” sideline reporter.

Dr. Stark taught generations of students at Hopkins.

“Walter was medically persistent,” said Dr. John D. Gottsch, a Hopkins professor of ophthalmology and a friend. “He was legendary examining his patients in complex cases. He often made a neurological diagnosis and sent them off to a different clinic for treatment.”

A 1982 Sun article about his surgery on a week-old baby born blind described Dr. Stark as a “tanned, athletic-looking man of ramrod stiff posture.”

Dr. Stark was noted as a medical leader in corneal surgery, corneal transplantation, intraocular lens implantation, and the use of the excimer laser for the rehabilitation of patients with visual disability.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology gave Dr. Stark its lifetime achievement award in 2015, the year he retired.

“We were residents together and spent half the night discussing a case,” said Dr. Allan D. Jensen, a fellow ophthalmologist and friend. “Walter was not shy and was worth all the credit he got. He will go down as a legend at Wilmer.”

Dr. Stark also operated on a sea turtle that was living at the National Aquarium and developed cataracts. He performed another procedure on a poisonous dart frog.

“My father was dedicated to his profession — an eye was an eye,” his daughter said. “He got such a kick out of a tiny frog. Nothing was too small for him.”

His daughter said Dr. Stark enjoyed bicycling down the boardwalk at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he had a vacation home. He also favored Maryland steamed crabs and Grotto’s pizza.

He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Polly Allen Stark, a teacher, antiques dealer and real estate agent; two daughters, Dr. Heather Stark, of Gainesville, Florida, an internist and public health physician, and Melissa Stark Lilley, of Rumson, New Jersey; a son, Walter J. “Jay” Stark III, of Fort Worth, Texas, owner of an ophthalmic device consulting firm; a brother, Jeff Moorman, of Oklahoma City; and two sisters, Penny Replogle and Susan Moorman, also of Oklahoma City; and nine grandchildren.

Remembering Dr. Walter Jackson Stark

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Peter Franklin Conrad

Peter Franklin Conrad

January 1, 1946 - March 3, 2024

Peter Conrad, a pioneering medical sociologist who brought attention to the increasing medicalization of society, died in his home in Lincoln, Massachusetts, on March 3rd, 2024. He was 78 years old.

He died at home, surrounded by loved ones, listening to Joan Baez. His cause of death was pneumonia after a long experience of Parkinson's.
Peter Conrad, the author of 16 books or monographs and more than 100 articles and chapters, was a dedicated academic at Brandeis University for more than 30 years, where he chaired both the sociology department and the Health: Science, Society, and Policy program.
Peter Franklin Conrad was born on April 12, 1945, in New York City to George Conrad and Gertrude (Rosenthal) Conrad. They were recent Jewish emigres from Germany and Austria, respectively. Conrad always proclaimed that he was a disobedient, distracted student during middle and high school school - one of the sources of his later interest in ADHD - and that he only came alive academically after taking sociology courses at SUNY Buffalo, now the University of Buffalo.

He went on to earn a master's degree from Northeastern University, in part to get a draft deferment from the Vietnam War. As a conscientious objector, he was assigned to do alternative service as an occupational therapy assistant at Boston State Hospital, a historic mental health institution. Witnessing interactions between patients, clinicians and the institution provided him with initial insights that would later lead him to apply sociological tools in examining the medical system's roles in society.

Combining this perspective with sociology's mid-century preoccupation with "deviance", he wrote his PhD dissertation at Boston University, which became his first book, Identifying Hyperactive Children: the Medicalization of Deviant Behavior. Peter began to understand that the diagnosis of hyperkinesis - later called hyperactivity, then ADD, and now called ADHD - "medicalized deviance". It transitioned a perceived "moral failing" into a medical diagnosis. This became a major theme in his research. As the subtitle of one of his most cited books puts it, medicalization transforms from "badness to sickness".
Over his career, he looked at how cultural and social factors in medicalization shape the definitions, perceptions, and experiences of alcoholism, depression, homosexuality, baldness, short boys and tall girls, among other conditions, in addition to ADHD. 

While many tried moralizing medicalization, Peter resisted that impulse. "I'm not trying to say it's good or bad," he'd often say, "I'm saying it's happening and we should understand it." Though his work was deeply analytical and theoretical, he always rejected the title of "theorist", but prided himself on "conceptualization".

Beyond medicalization, Peter studied the experience of epilepsy, worksite wellness programs, medical education, the social meanings of the new genetics, and illness on the internet. Graham Scambler, emeritus professor at University College London, once wrote that, when it comes to medical sociology, "people and things tend to revolve around Peter."

Peter was elected Chair of the Medical Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association in 1987 and elected President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems in 1995.

He was a dedicated teacher, mentor, and collaborator, and had tremendous pride in the accomplishments of his graduate and undergraduate students, even long after they became his colleagues.

Beyond sociology, Peter had an enduring interest in green spaces and rural heritage in Massachusetts. He served on the Lincoln Conservation Commission, the board of Codman Community Farm, and the community board of Drumlin Farm, a site of the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He also nurtured this interest in his annual vegetable garden, cultivating multiple potato varieties, giving many opportunities for his younger family members to squash potato bugs.

Peter was an avid traveler taking many journeys with his beloved wife and family. These included two sabbatical years abroad: one in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and the other in London, England. He was also a Distinguished Fulbright Scholar at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and maintained close professional relationships with colleagues there through a twenty-year visiting faculty appointment.

One of the great joys of his later years was reuniting with a lost branch of his maternal lineage through family research that brought multiple branches of that family together in Munich and later in Washington, D.C. Peter spoke what he called "Kitchen German" from his emigre parents and engaging more deeply with his family history was deeply meaningful.

Though born in New York, Peter was a devoted Boston sports fan, particularly of his beloved Celtics, who were a constant comfort in his last years and a joy he shared with many family members and friends. After his diagnosis with Parkinson's in 2014, he also became deeply involved with Rock Steady Boxing at SLS in Lowell to maintain strength, mobility, and community. He was supported during this time by loving caregivers, most notably Annette and Moses Mugwanya, who were with him during the last four years.

He is survived by his wife, Libby Bradshaw, a physician and assistant professor at Tufts Medical School of Lincoln, MA; his daughter Rya Conrad-Bradshaw, an executive in EdTech of Concord, MA; a son, Jared Conrad-Bradshaw, an educational consultant of Istanbul, Turkey; as well as three grandchildren Rafi, Sela, and Avi, and a son-in-law, Drew Magliozzi, and a daughter-in-law, Rita Ender, both of whom he adored. He is also survived by close-in-heart family members across the world, students from multiple generations, dear friends of more than 50 years (including multiple housemates), and a dog he tolerated. He is predeceased by his sister Nina (Conrad) Furgiuele.

Remembering Peter Franklin Conrad

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

Richard Harrison Truly

Richard Harrison Truly

November 12, 1937 - February 27, 2024

Richard H. Truly, former astronaut and NASA administrator, passed away Tuesday, February 27, 2024, at 86. Born November 12, 1937, in Fayette, Mississippi, he attended school in Fayette and Meridian, Mississippi.

Truly graduated with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he attended a Naval ROTC midshipman. In 1959, coinciding with his graduation, he began his career in the U.S. Navy and was commissioned an ensign.

In 1965, Truly became one of the first military astronauts selected to the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in Los Angeles, California, before transferring to NASA in 1969. He served as capsule communicator for all three Skylab missions in 1973, and the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.

Between his time as a naval aviator, test pilot, and astronaut, Truly logged over 75,000 hours in military and civilian jet aircraft. He piloted one of the two astronaut crews that flew the 747/space shuttle Enterprise approach and landing test flights in 1977. Then, he was the backup pilot for STS-1, the first orbital test of the shuttle.

His first space flight was in November 1981, as the pilot of space shuttle Columbia. This flight was a major milestone marking the first piloted spacecraft that was REFLOWN in space. Truly’s second flight was from August through September 1983, when he was commander of the space shuttle Challenger, which marked the first night launch and landing in the Space Shuttle Program.

After serving as the first commander of the Naval Space Command in Dahlgren, Virginia, in 1983, Truly returned to NASA in 1986 as the Associate Administrator for Space Flight, the same year as the Challenger accident. He led the rebuilding of the Space Shuttle Program following the tragedy. Under his leadership, Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in September 1988, marking the first Shuttle mission in nearly three years.

Richard went on to serve as NASA’s eighth Administrator from February 1989 to 1992.

He received several honors during his NASA career including two NASA Distinguished Service Medals, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, two NASA Exceptional Service Medals, and two NASA Space Flight Medals, plus many more accolades throughout the years.

Richard married Colleen Cody Hanner of Milledgeville, Georgia. They had three children together.

A wreath was placed in his honor inside the rotunda of Heroes & Legends featuring the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame® presented by Boeing®.

Remembering Richard Harrison Truly

Use the form below to make your memorial contribution. PRO will send a handwritten card to the family with your tribute or message included. The information you provide enables us to apply your remembrance gift exactly as you wish.

The Memorial Wall is a virtual place to

  • Honor the diversity and rich legacies of the people we have already lost to Parkinson’s and demonstrate to the world the high human cost of this neglected disorder.  

  • Provide a place for the living to visit so they can gain solace and understanding around the battle of a loved one with Parkinson’s.

  • Serve as a memorial when the family prefers donations in lieu of flowers or tributes at anniversaries or other significant dates.

Our work to ensure no one is isolated because of Parklinson’s has always been a labor of love. The Memorial Wall is an extension of that lovea virtual place for love to gather, reminisce, celebrate, as well as a ‘show of force’ to remind the world what we’ve already lost to this hideous disease. 

If you wish to honor your loved one and share your memories in a public fashion or establish a memorial event, such as a golf tournament, tennis tournament, or special award presentation in the name of the family or decedent, please complete this submission form or contact us at info@parkinsonsresource.org.

If you wish to honor your loved one and share your memories in a public fashion or establish a memorial event, such as a golf tournament, tennis tournament, or special award presentation in the name of the family or decedent, please complete this submission form or contact us at info@parkinsonsresource.org.

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Updated: August 16, 2017