He remained mentally alert, however, and continued to attend events. “And he was a person totally concerned with everybody.”ĭuring the last year, Parkhouse’s diabetes and other illnesses forced him to walk with the aid of two crutches. “He was a person of total class,” said Asher, who had breakfast with Parkhouse every Monday at Danny’s Diner in Bridgeport before Parkhouse retired. State Republican Chairman Robert Asher said Parkhouse acquired considerable political power through his accomplishments and once headed the state association of county commissioners. “I would like to consider that the most important contribution.” “We have been able to maintain that,” Parkhouse said at his retirement. Parkhouse’s accounting background and education at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School were also evident in the pride he took in the county’s AAA bond rating, Bartle said.Ībove all, however, Parkhouse believed he left the county government with a legacy of credibility, Wood said. During the 1981 trial of anti-war activists known as the PlowsharesEight, Parkhouse wrestled on the courthouse steps with a demonstrator he thought was misusing an American flag. Parkhouse’s politics were conservative, and he was an ardent patriot. He also oversaw the building of the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, the start of construction of the county’s 504-cell prison scheduled to open this spring, and the expansion of the county parks system with the purchases of Green Lane Reservoir and three historic sites, Peter Wentz Farmstead, Pennypacker Mills and Sunrise Mill. Parkhouse oversaw the building of a new county Youth Center and an Emergency Operations Center with radio room and computer-aided dispatch system that were state of the art.
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