Obituary

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to Reed City Food Pantry (donations may be mail to St Paul Lutheran) or G.T. Norman Elementary School/LIFT. The LIFT is a literacy program that Tom and Linda participated in together once a week in the Reed City school.

Funeral home directions
128 S Warren Ave
Big Rapids, MI 49307
(231) 796-8628

St. Paul Lutheran Directions
22275 4 Mile Rd
Reed City, MI
(231) 832-9541

GT Norman Elementary
338 W Lincoln Ave
Reed City, MI 49677
(231) 832-5548

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He was born September 2, 1944, in Detroit, the son of Theodore and Edna (Knauf) Proefrock. As a child, Tom moved with his family to the Reed City area, and graduated from Leroy High School in 1962.

Following graduation, he joined the US Air Force, and served as an airplane mechanic stationed in Dover, Delaware until his honorable discharge in 1966.

On April 14, 1973, Tom married Linda Harrison of Paris, and they have made their home in Grant Township. For nearly 20 years, they owned and operated Gone to the Birds Farm, specializing in raising Bobwhite Quail. Tom drove bus for MOISD, and also drove athletic teams for Ferris State University. He also drove truck for several local companies.

Tom was a member of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Reed City, where he was confirmed. He enjoyed his AA Fellowship, was active with Therapy Dogs International with his Golden Retrievers KDB and Molly, and was formerly Scoutmaster of Reed City Area Troop #70. He also actively participated in the LIFT Program, reading to children at G. T. Norman Elementary School in Reed City. Tom was “Dad first”, and looked forward to the annual trips to Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Northern Minnesota with his family. He loved shooting sports, and built his own skeet and trap range on the family farm in Ashton.

Surviving are his wife Linda; 5 children; Melissa (James) Barns of Ft. Leonard Wood, MO, Jamie Proefrock, Jeff (Jeanne) Proefrock of Muskegon, Jason (Debra) Proefrock of Hersey, and Josh Proefrock and his fiancé Julie Feutz of Paris; his mother-in-law Audrey Harrison of Paris; and his half brother Philip Parker of Battle Creek.

Funeral services will be 11:00 a.m., Monday, December 8, 2008, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Reed City, with Rev. Dawn Pooley officiating. Burial will follow in the Ashton Cemetery. Tom’s family will greet friends at the Mohnke Funeral Home in Big Rapids on Sunday, December 7, 2008 from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., and after 10:00 a.m. on Monday at the church.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made for the Reed City Food Pantry or the L.I.F.T. Reading Program at G.T. Norman Elementary School, with envelopes available at the funeral home.

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I spent some time last night mourning the loss of my father. I am sad that we are unable to reach a place where we can have a relationship of some kind. It’s not for lack of other wonderful male influences, I have many older father-figures in my life, but there is a part of a girl that desperately needs a daddy. I acknowledged a long time ago that while God designed me for that, I would not have that this side of eternity. I still have the desire, the wish, hope, dream. This topic came up because a friend of Jason & Jeanne lost her father in a motorcycle accident earlier this week. I had never met her father, but I had met her and my heart went out to her. I can’t imaging the pain of losing a loving father, but the emotion of losing my grandmother was raw enough to bring tears.

Today we attended the funeral. Her father was a retired firefighter, I have never attended a funeral for someone in that career. Beyond the countless men and women in many public service roles, the service ended with one last call and Amazing Grace a-al bagpipe. I’m one of the ones that appreciates the bagpipe and the talent behind it. The last call brought many tears to many eyes across the church. Central dispatch beeps the men, then they all turn the volume up and we hear the dispatcher call the deceased’s name several times. After the dispatcher is unable to reach the individual, she announced that he had gone home and sent him off with well wishes or thanks. I’m afraid I was crying by the end and don’t remember her exact words. The service leading up to that was beautiful, very Christ-centered. His wife read her testimony, which was really her husband’s and her testimony. Jason’s Dad went with us, we decided to attend the graveside service and return to the church for lunch with the family.

Upon returning home, Jason and I set to work on the raised beds in the garden. If I had to guess, I would say it was around 5 or so. I’ll post pictures later on Saturday or Sunday. I have onions and garlic pushing up through the earth. All of my beds are down with black dirt sitting in them and I nearly knelt on a snake. We put down some screen in the hopes of keeping out the moles and I didn’t trim it. I was kneeling down to work in a bed and Jason said in a serious tone, don’t move snake. The snake had gotten tangled in the mesh, so Jason carefully cut it out and set it free. It had lost some color, it may have been in the sun too long. When we finished work today, I made sure to tear off the extra mesh, I would hate for that to happen again, we came in the house around 8.

I need to spend a few more minutes on the last box. By the time I stopped, I was saying good enough with the amount of rocks still in it. I know I encountered more stones than I would have liked to when I planted the onions and garlic. I have determined that I am going to have too many tomatoes and not enough broccolis. My broccolis are refusing to stand up straight, too spindly. My sweet peppers are just starting to come up after weeks and weeks and weeks, I planted the sweet peppers and broccoli on April 21. My tomatoes are growing fast, planted those April 30th, along with the hot peppers and bell peppers, I think.

To wrap up the online reference discussion, I did discover that thefreecitionary.com site has a way to search for words that begin with or end with. I also found a rhyming dictionary and a few other tools that I book marked. I also subsribed to a word-a-day rss fee, maybe I will learn some new words.

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