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Family, friends pay tribute to YSU advocate Frank Watson
YOUNGSTOWN
Nearly 400 friends and family gathered in Youngstown State University’s Watson and Tressel Training Site to memorialize Frank C. Watson, a YSU advocate, community leader and family man.
“Today we say farewell to a great man,” said Watson’s daughter, Ellen Tressel, on Monday afternoon. Ellen Tressel is also the wife of YSU President Jim Tressel.
Watson, 92, died Thursday after a 10-year battle with Parkinson’s disease.
Parkinson’s is a disease that deteriorates the nervous system.
Ellen Tressel remembered during one of Watson’s bad days, he told his nurse he was going to ask the blonde visiting him to marry him.
“The blonde was his wife of nearly 68 years, Norma Watson,” Tressel quipped. “It just goes to show you if he had the chance, he would do it all over again.”
She added that the memorial service wasn’t just to honor her father, but her mother as well.
“I just thank her for the loyalty she gave to him on such a wonderful journey,” Tressel said. “As we say in the Tressel household, it was truly a team event.”
Because he was an avid churchgoer until his final days, the Rev. Susan Brown of Canfield United Methodist Church offered comfort to Watson’s family members.
She said not to think of Watson as leaving, but finally coming home.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” the Rev. Mrs. Brown said. “Today we offer Frank peace, and we claim that promise for him to return him from his temporary home.”
Tressel said Watson would be the first to tell you he had a great life.
“He’d often say, ‘I’ve done everything I wanted to do. I lack nothing. When the Lord is ready to take me, I’m ready to go,’” she said.
The interesting thing, Tressel said, was that Watson said that sort of thing often for about 20 years.
“When the sun sets tonight over Youngstown, Ohio, and we lay Dad to rest, a great American story will close,” Tressel said. “The journey has now ended and the Lord has called him home. His body is now whole and pain-free.”
Watson leaves behind his wife, Norma Jeanne (Hitchcock); two daughters, Janet (Jeff) Stephens and Ellen (Jim) Tressel; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
A son, David, died in 1991.