William Franklin “Frank” Parrish, Jr., 84, of Fitzgerald, died Sunday, May 31, 2015, at Life Care Center in Fitzgerald.
Funeral services will be held 2 PM, Friday, June 5, 2015, at The Paulk Funeral Home Chapel, Fitzgerald. David Malcolm and other friends will deliver eulogies. Interment will follow in the Evergreen Cemetery. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Mr. Parrish was born June 3, 1930, in Thomasville, Georgia, to the late William Franklin & Mary Mauldin Parrish. He was a 1948 graduate of Nashville High School in Nashville, GA. He served his country honorably in the United States Navy during the Korean War and traveled extensively during his tour of duty. He attended ABAC and graduated from the University of Georgia, earning his Bachelors in Forestry and his Masters, in Wildlife Management. Mr. Parrish served a distinguished career with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, helping to establish the region system throughout Georgia, and retired in 1990 as a regional supervisor at the Bowen’s Mill Fish Hatchery. He was an avid outdoorsman who loved bird watching and attending the wildflower symposium in Athens and Tifton. He helped to renovate the Blue-Gray Museum and assisted David Malcolm in constructing the outdoor classrooms at Ben Hill Middle School and Ben Hill Primary School as well as the Buddy Hopkins Bird Sanctuary behind the health department.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Patricia Langford Parrish of Fitzgerald; son: William F. Parrish, III and his wife Laura of Colorado Springs, Colorado; two grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; a brother, Charles & Nina Parrish of Vidalia; and a sister, Rachel Mann of Chapin, South Carolina. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a daughter, Hillery Parrish and a brother-in-law, John Mann.