Francis Thomas Troskey

Francis Thomas Troskey, 92, died peacefully in his sleep at his residence in Boynton Beach, Florida, on August 18, 2017. Funeral arrangements  have been entrusted  to Memorial Funeral Home.  Visitation will be at Memorial Funeral Home Thursday, August 24, 2017 from 5:00 PM  to 7:00 PM. A Mass of the Resurrection will be at Annunciation Catholic Church on Friday, August 25, 2017 at 11:00 AM with Father Jeffrey Waldrep , Celebrant.  Burial, with military honors, will follow at Friendship Cemetery.

Born in the small, coal-mining community of Universal, Indiana (Bunsen) on April 22, 1925, Frank Troskey grew up during the Great Depression, in a poor but happy home with his parents and four siblings. He worked as a newspaper delivery boy for seven years, wearing insufficient clothing during frigid winters, earning three awards for salesmanship, and clerked before and after school and on weekends at a small grocery store where he served customers, butchered meat, and pumped gas for the princely sum of $3 a week.

Frank went into the U.S. Navy immediately upon high school graduation in 1943, during World War II. He served 4 ½ years on active duty, completed aviation pilot training, and was commissioned as an ensign and awarded Pilot's Wings. His highest rank attained was Lieutenant. He flew in the Reserves for 11 years. During his time in the service, Frank flew 17 different kinds of aircraft, including carrier landings at sea, and jet aircraft.

Frank met his wife-to-be, Ethel Esther (Esther) Gunnoe, in high school. They married while he was in the Navy and over the next 5 years had three children: Gene, Janet, and Philip.

Frank worked as a furniture salesman while he earned a Bachelor's Degree in Forestry at Purdue University, where he was the President of the Forestry Club and a member of the first rowing crew at Purdue.

After graduation he worked with the Mississippi Forestry Commission where he advised landowners on management practices, did fire control work, spoke to civic organizations, and had a weekly radio program.  He was promoted to District Manager in 1955.

In 1956 he went to work for Chicago Mill & Lumber Company in Greenville, MS, where he oversaw the inventory of 250,000 acres of hardwood forest, wrote field instructions for the first CFI (continuing forest inventory) of an old hardwood forest, and personally measured all 15,000 trees in the sample. The data was punched and coded into cards in the field. This was the very first computerized forest inventory done at Mississippi State University.

In 1961 the family moved to Corona, CA, where they lived for six years. Frank was a business manager and became a licensed real estate broker.

After moving back to Mississippi, he became the forestry consultant at the MSU Computing Center and also taught a course in the Forestry Department in 1971. In 1974, he became Land and Timber Acquisitions Manager for Weyerhauser in Columbus. He was instrumental in the purchase and lease of many thousands of acres of timber land. His proudest achievement was the management of the Sumners lease transaction. The E.H. Sumners Endowed Scholarship Fund has since provided scholarships to thousands of college students in five Mississippi counties.

Frank's last career, spanning 30 years, was as a forestry consultant in his own business: “Frank Troskey, Forest Manager and Consultant” in Columbus. With his unique knowledge of forest economics and forest management, he provided a comprehensive array of services for landowners throughout the region until he retired from active forestry work at the age of 84. He was noted for his ability to recognize the species and dimensions of a tree with one glance and could out-walk almost anyone in the woods. Frank was one of the longest serving members of the Society of American Foresters and was a Certified Forester in Mississippi and Alabama. He was a Certified Mississippi Tree Farmer since 1953 and owned and managed his own timberland. He was also a past President of the Starkville Audubon Society.

When Frank and Esther moved to Columbus, MS for his job with Weyerhauser, they discovered an antebellum home for sale. Since the original four rooms were owned and built by free people of color in 1843, making it one of of the most unique houses in the south, Frank and Esther felt a calling to preserve the house. They named their new home “The Haven”, and restoring it became a labor of love for many years, where they lived together happily until Esther's death in 2009.

Frank personally planted the now famous pine tree cross north of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport that is visible from flying airplanes. He also donated the land and created a veterans memorial for his home town of Universal, IN, naming all the people in the town who served during World War II.

Frank had a very full life. He had the loving companionship of his wife for over 62 years and had caring relationships with his children, family members, extended family, and many friends, with his longest friendship spanning 90 years. He did work that he enjoyed and was fortunate enough to travel extensively. He was well thought of by the people who had the good fortune to know him and was an excellent story teller.

Frank was a life-long Catholic and was a 42-year member of the Annunciation Catholic Church. He was also a member of the W. H. Jolly Council # 7974 Knights of Columbus.

Frank was preceded in death by his parents, Anthony and Elizabeth French Troskey, his three sisters, and his only brother Anthony Troskey.  He is survived by his three children Gene Troskey, Janet Henderson and Philip Troskey, all of Boynton Beach, FL,  ten grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Pallbearers will be relatives and other loved ones. In lieu of flowers,  memorials may  be sent to The Dwelling Place, 2851 Dwelling Place Rd, Brooksville, MS 39739; Helping Hands, P.O. Box 1241, Columbus, MS 39703; and Palmer Home for Children, P.O. Box 746, Columbus, MS 39703.