Parnell Haskins Mahoney 1915 - 2009

MAHONEY, PAINE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen-Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/25/2013 at 09:47:22

Sioux City Journal
4 November 2009

SIOUX CITY -- Parnell Haskins Mahoney, 94, died peacefully on Nov. 1, 2009, with his family members by his side.

Private family graveside services will be in the Graceland Park Cemetery in Morningside. Parnell's family and friends will then gather Saturday at the First United Methodist Church, 19th and Nebraska Street in Sioux City, for a luncheon and remembrance celebration from noon to 2 p.m. Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel is handling arrangements. Condolences may be sent online to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Mr. Mahoney, a lifelong resident of Sioux City, was born Jan. 19, 1915. He was raised in Morningside and attended Longfellow Grade School, East Middle School, and East High School. Parnell won the National Extemporaneous Speaking Championship in 1932, while attending East High School; the prize was a full scholarship to the University of Iowa. Parnell, who was asthmatic, contracted ether pneumonia after an appendicitis while a freshman at the University of Iowa and was forced to drop out of school. He then attended Morningside College in Sioux City, and later the University of Arizona, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1937. While at Arizona, Parnell was on the championship Pacific Coast debate team. Parnell then attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., where he received his masters of business administration in 1938.

In 1938, Parnell married Barbara K. Paine in Glendale, Calif. Parnell and Barbara celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2008.

Mr. Mahoney worked his entire working life for Sioux City Brick and Tile Company, as a third generation member of the family managing the concern. Mr. Mahoney first worked at the brick plant in Sergeant Bluff in the summer of 1933. He then returned after earning his M.B.A. to work full-time in 1938, serving as salesman, office employee, vice president, president and chairman of the board of directors. In 1947, Parnell obtained a Quonset steel building franchise, which erected grain storage buildings throughout the Siouxland trade area. This business was later expanded to include a Stran Steel franchise and was sold in 1963. Between 1955 and 1960, Mr. Mahoney also served as the president of the United Brick and Tile Company of Kansas City, Mo. During his career at Sioux City Brick, Parnell, along with his brother Loren and his brother-in-law John Hill, consolidated its entire operations at Sergeant Bluff, and Adel, Iowa, which had been purchased in 1958. Together, they built the first modern tunnel kiln operation in Iowa in 1963 and followed up with three more tunnel kilns in 1968, 1972 and 1977. A sales office was established in Bloomington, Minn., in 1960 to complement the offices in Des Moines and Sioux City.

Parnell adapted readily to the computer world in his late seventies. Investments, family genealogy, and Civil War history were some of his varied interests. Parnell served on the church board at the First United Methodist Church, of which he was a member, and was president of the board of the then Methodist Hospital before its merger into the St. Luke's Hospital. Mr. Mahoney also served as a member of the board of trustees of Morningside College and the boards of the Samaritan Home and the Sioux City Concert Course.

Parnell is survived by his wife; and three children, Daniel Parnell Mahoney II resides in Lower Hutt, New Zealand (Dan's children are Karen Heather Wirtz, Tanya Marie McFerrin, Daniel Patrick, and Parnell Alonzo) -- DPM II is retired from being an associate professor of biology at California State University Los Angeles, Norman Paine Mahoney is the co-C.E.O. of Sioux City Brick and Tile Company (Norman's children are Norman Earl, Luella Anne Galan, and Heidi Ferne), Jane Crider resides in Bellevue, Neb. (Jane's children are Charles Alexander, Robert Nathanial and Catherine Elizabeth). Parnell and Barbara have 10 great-grandchildren.

Parnell was preceded in death by his parents; and his sister, Jane; and his brother, Loren.

The family would like to thank the Holy Spirit Nursing Home staff for their loving care of Parnell over the last several years.

Parnell was a great husband and father and role model for his family and friends, and he will be missed. His pleasant smile, his polite personal interest in you, and his hard working demeanor were his trade marks.

Parnell has requested that in lieu of flowers that you make memorials to the United Way of Siouxland or the charity of your choice.