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A fitting memorial

Margaret "Peggy" Park, friend to flora and fauna, is remembered where she died in the line of duty.

By ELENA LESLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published October 9, 2007

State wildlife Officer Rob Laubenberger of Fort Lauderdale joins other officers in a procession during Monday's service.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Douglas R. Clifford | Times] Margaret "Peggy" Park, left, mother of slain state wildlife Officer Margaret E. "Peggy" Park, observes her daughter's memorial. Park was a wildlife officer from 1982 to 1984 in Pinellas County.

Twenty-three years ago, while patrolling the remote Brooker Creek area at night, Wildlife Officer Margaret "Peggy" Park approached two suspicious-looking men in a van.

She found a pistol in the vehicle. A struggle ensued and one of the men smashed a flashlight over her head 20 to 30 times. Then he wrestled her gun from her and shot her in the head.

Park, 26, died north of a clump of oak trees, just outside the Brooker Creek Preserve property in northeastern Pinellas County.

Over two decades later, her story still resonates with the local conservation community.

"Her light wasn't put out that evening," Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission law enforcement spokesman Kat Kelley said Monday. "Her light burns even brighter every single year."

Kelley, who worked with Park, joined others Monday to dedicate a stone monument only yards from where the officer died. They said they wanted the passion of her life, a fierce devotion to protecting the environment, as well as lessons learned from her death to touch generations to come.

"She laid down her life in trying to protect the environment," said Col. Julie Jones, director of Law Enforcement for the FWCC.

The fallen officer had received several tributes to her life before Bruce Rinker came to Pinellas County in 2004, including a nature trail named in her honor. But when Rinker became division director of the county's Department of Environmental Management, he decided Park needed a more permanent monument.

"I kept hearing about her," he said. "The staff and I started discussing how we could best honor an officer fallen in the cause of conservation."

Park's ashes had been scattered over an eagle's nest she helped protect, but she had no official grave.

After two years of discussion, Rinker and his staff settled on the idea of a stone marker near where she died. A lecture series in Park's honor is also under consideration, Jones said.

At Monday's gathering, those who knew her best shared fond remembrances of Park, who family members called a born animal lover.

"She started with dogs, then added cats, gerbils, fish tanks," Park's sister, Betsy, said of her childhood in Columbus, Ohio. "She had such an affinity for animals."

But Park was also fiercely devoted to the humans in her life. Betsy Park described a big sister who read to her under the covers and "beat up the neighborhood bully who was picking on me."

She had a mischievous side too, painting her brother's toenails red while he was asleep and running certain "unmentionables" up the school flagpole, Betsy Park said.

After graduating from high school, Park went to Ohio State University, where she was "surrounded by crowds of friends," her sister said. She graduated in 1981 with a bachelor of science degree in natural resources and wildlife management.

The wildlife officer position in Pinellas County seemed a perfect first job. Park was fascinated by the state's natural beauty and dreamed of owning a horse farm one day. After passing the wildlife officer acceptance test on her first try, Park moved into a mobile home near Brooker Creek with her two dogs and two cats.

In no time, she became "part of our law enforcement family," said Captain David Stermen of the FWCC.

The night of Dec. 13, 1984, that family was forever fractured.

"There was a lot of chaos and searching that night. We worked all night long following several leads," said Capt. Roy Brown of the FWCC. "There is not a Dec. 13th that goes by that I don't think about it and reflect."

Kelley, who was one of the few other female officers in the district at that time, said she would never forget the call she got that night from her bureau chief. Though shaken by news of her colleague's murder and against the protests of family members, Kelley decided to continue working as a wildlife inspector.

But Park's death spawned a new calling as well.

"I searched and searched for a way to give this meaning," Kelley said. While walking near her parents' home, it came to her. She would "become a master in defensive tactics," she said.

From that time on, she has traveled the country, teaching defensive training to women in law enforcement. Because of gender differences, women need to know how to protect themselves physically and be educated about what equipment works best for them, she said.

"I dedicate every single training course to Peggy," she said.

Highlighting Park's contribution is particularly fitting today, when more crime is migrating into wilderness areas, said Col. Jones. Criminals use rural stretches of land for shooting practice, cooking drugs and hiding out from law enforcement.

Those patrolling recreational areas must protect not only nature and animals, but also people, she said.

The public "tends to get sidetracked by sexier crimes," Jones said. "When you lose an officer, it highlights the danger and significance of the job."

Margaret "Peggy" Park

Who: She was a wildlife officer from 1982 to 1984 in Pinellas County.

The crime: On Dec. 13, 1984, she was shot by a man on parole while she was patrolling near the Brooker Creek Preserve.

The sentence: Martin Grossman, her killer, awaits execution on death row. His accomplice, Thayne Taylor, served two years and 10 months before being released into a supervised community-release program.

Her roots: Park grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and spent many family vacations in the Canadian wilderness.

Education: She attended Ohio State University, where she was a member of the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor of science degree in natural resources and wildlife management.

Pets: Park had an ever-expanding menagerie throughout her life. As a child, she collected dogs, gerbils and fish. At her home in northern Pinellas County, she had two dogs and two cats.

[Last modified October 8, 2007, 21:10:28]