When Mark Parrish came to our offices to outline a poster series featuring local landmarks, I was skeptical.
He would draw images of select locations, Mark said, creating moments that would connect with people’s memories.
They would be period posters, set in distinctive times in the community’s past, containing imagery with which longtime Johnstowners could relate.
Let him give it a try, we figured. Let’s see what happens.
When Mark returned with his first sketch, my mind was changed instantly.
That drawing became our first poster with him, and depicted The Tribune-Democrat’s Locust Street building from the days when youngsters carrying sacks of newspapers ran up and down the street shouting: “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!”
My favorite part of that poster was the man standing in an upstairs window looking down at mass communication in progress – people loading bundles of papers into a delivery truck. Was it legendary publisher Walter Krebs? Perhaps a young Dick Mayer?
The poster was a winner, and so was Mark Parrish.
Mark died last Sunday at Windber Hospice – five days shy of his 46th birthday. And his passing leaves a void in our community.
Many people knew him as the best picture-framer in the area. For 15 years, Mark worked at Michael’s Arts & Crafts, now in the Richland Town Centre shopping plaza.
When we produced other posters – including those featuring our front pages after championships by the Steelers and Penguins – people would contact our office asking about getting their posters framed. We always sent them to see Mark.
He had a gift, and he shared it unselfishly.
Many individuals have reminders of Mark – beautiful pictures and posters, or even the frames holding them – displayed in their homes or businesses.
He was a natural artist with an eye for details – such as an energetic paperboy or a man standing in an upstairs window – that would draw viewers into his images.
Mark’s second poster with us is a classic.
It shows the corner of Franklin and Locust streets in downtown Johnstown during the pre-Christmas rush of a bygone era.
Shoppers are moving in and out of a decorated Glosser Bros. department store, carrying packages and bags. A light snow is falling on the street scene, and you can feel the spirit of the season.
It is a complex depiction of a simpler time.
Our poster series with Mark never got past those two images – the Tribune building and Glosser’s at Christmas.
Ironically, our mission of showing the landmarks of Johnstown never made it more than one city block.
And while his drawings carry us back to seemingly happier times in our past, his works – and indeed his passing – evoke a feeling of loss that can only come from the realization that time moves ever forward, despite our desperate efforts to hold on for even one moment longer.
Farewell, Mark.
Chip Minemyer is the editor of The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 532-5091.
Chip Minemyer
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Discussion
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