Obituary of Donald Sparpana

Melbourne, Florida Don, 83, passed away Monday, September 2nd at his home. He was born in Iron Mountain, Michigan in 1935, the only child of Alice and Louis Sparpana. At the age of six, his parents moved to Dearborn, Michigan. Growing up, he spent every spare minute on a baseball field. He graduated from Fordson High School, where he played on the Class A State Championship Basketball Team of 1953. He went on to attend Henry Ford Community College and then to Michigan State on a baseball scholarship. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He met Gwen, a junior at the time, while working on a master’s degree at MSU in Physical Education. He later earned a Master’s in Parks and Recreation Administration from Central Michigan. He taught for two years in Ohio as a classroom teacher, head baseball coach and assistant basketball coach. During this period, he and Gwen had identical twin boys. He was then hired by Dearborn as assistant director of Parks and Recreation. Several years later, he was contacted to come to Wyoming, Michigan (a newly created town) to create a Parks and Recreation Department. He held that position for 36 years. He was president of the Mich. Parks and Rec. Association, chairman of the Great Lakes P & R Association and on the Nat’l Board of the P & R Association. He was president of the Mich. Amateur Softball Association and was inducted into the Michigan Parks and Recreation Hall of Fame. Don was an avid boater, he and Gwen boated to Mackinaw Island every year and were also known to cross Lake Michigan to Chicago or Wisconsin often with their cruiser. His other love was skiing with his family which took up many winter weekends traveling north to ski. Upon retirement, he and Gwen moved to Melbourne, Florida, where he took up golf with avengence. A member of the Rockledge Country Club, he was president for two years. He also became an avid member of the Space Coast Spartans and was at every game viewing that he could possibly attend. He and Gwen cruised a number of times with the gang. He on occasion said he would never take one of those cruises, but he loved it being with his Spartan friends. He had some very sad times in his life including the loss of his granddaughter who was abducted by a stranger at the age of 3, the murder of his daughter-in-law; and more recent, the loss of his sons. He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Gwen; his daughter-in-law; four grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. His wishes are to be cremated with a Celebration of Life scheduled at a later time. He constantly joked with Gwen that if he went before her and she had a funeral, he would haunt her for the rest of her life.