Frank Eugene Harmon |
| Posted 2009-07-13 by Judy Wight Branson |
| The Daily Courier, Prescott, Arizona Wednesday, July 08, 2009 Frank Eugene Harmon passed away late on the evening of his favorite holiday, the 4th of July, at the VA Extended Care Facility in Prescott, Ariz. He was 72. He was one of the world's longest-known survivors of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), having been diagnosed with it in 1988. Harmon served in the United States Air Force from 1955 to 1958 and later worked for Pan Am Airlines and was a building inspector in Colorado and in Prescott Valley, Ariz. Even though he was unable to speak after 1989 and was soon paralyzed from the chest down and barely able to use his arms, Harmon insisted on living life fully. In 2000 he participated in the National Disabled Veterans winter sports clinic, where he skied, went scuba diving and climbed a rock wall using an arm-powered pulley that he devised with paralyzed mountain climber Mark Wellman. That same year, Harmon wrote with Andy Landis a play that garnered him a gold medal from the Veterans Creative Arts Festival. Later, that play was made into a film featuring Harmon and was accepted in the 2003 New York Independent Film Festival. Harmon won several awards for his plays, poems and short stories. He had a penchant for Harley-Davidsons, funny t-shirts, vodka and good friends. He is survived by three adult children, Leslie Zucker (Jordan) of Atlanta, Ga., Steven Harmon of Peoria, Ariz., and Carole Harmon of Fort Myers, Fla., and four grandchildren, Shae-Lynn, Kenny and Chase Harmon and Izabella Zucker. Burial will be at 10 a.m. Friday, July 10, 2009, at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, 23029 North Cave Creek Road in Phoenix. No flowers please. Donations may be made to one's favorite charity or an ALS support group or foundation. Sunrise Funeral Home was entrusted with the arrangements. Information provided by survivors. |
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