Longtime area resident Ed Park dies at age 96

     Review-Journal
      In 1912, Ed Park left his Colorado home at the age of 12 to work in the mines and dig wells. He lied about his age to join the service during World War I and he dabbled in boxing in the 1920s to make a few extra bucks.
      "He just had such an interesting life," Park's daughter-in-law Janette said Monday. "He was just an old timer and a hard worker."
      Edwin "Ed" Park, a Hoover Dam worker and Colorado River Commission supervisor, died Wednesday at Columbia Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center following a long illness. He was 96.
      Services for the 66-year Southern Nevada resident were held privately Sunday at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City.
      Janette Park said her father-in-law came to Nevada around 1931 to help build Hoover Dam. He operated electronic shovel equipment and was instrumental in unionizing electricians, she said.
      She said his work on the Colorado River Commission required that he be reached at all times, thus Park and his wife, Sima, were given the first residential telephone installed in Henderson.
      "He was very abrupt, strictly business," Janette recalled. "He wanted to get everything done and get outta there, but he did like to tell stories."
      Park retired in 1964. He celebrated his 70th anniversary with his wife, Sima, who is 90, on Oct. 25 at the Boulder Dam Hotel.
      Along with his wife, Park is survived by sons Bob and James, both of Henderson; daughter Laila Paglia of Boulder City; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.