Michael Floyd Parks of Sweet Home left the planet on February 15, 2024 after 75 years of love, music, dreams, and passion. Born on the slopes of an ancient volcano in Portland, Oregon on October 28, 1948, he lived his early childhood in the Lents neighborhood of SE Portland in a house that his father had built from the salvaged remains of the old Vanport Jail. When Mike was 10 his family moved to Scholls, Oregon where they lived on a haunted filbert farm. In 1969 he married Susan Bush, who was his partner in life for 55 years. Together they raised 3 children, Michael Jr., Sean, and Tania. He was affectionately referred to as grampy by his 3 grandchildren Anna,  Zinnia, and Asten. 

Mike was active in community theater in his youth and during his life held many jobs. As a young man he sailed the seven seas as a merchant mariner. He also held jobs in a steel foundry, the Portland shipyards, and worked on tugboats on the Columbia River and in Alaska. In 2015 he retired from the Kalama Grain Exporters, where he worked for 30 years.

Mike was a psychedelic cowboy – a proud product of the 1960’s west coast counterculture and a teller of tall tales that grew better with each telling. Mike believed in the power of love, and never missed a chance to tell his friends and family how much he loved them. He was also an avid camper, and nature lover who often spoke of his other life that he lived while sleeping. He  described an elaborate dreamscape that was constructed over his lifetime, full of places and people that he would only meet and see while he was there, including old friends and family who were no longer alive. We hope he is there.

Mike was preceded in death by his mother Betty Mills, father Glen “Johnny” Parks, sister Glenda Langager, and his best friends Randy Roobis and David Mills. 

Sweet Home Funeral Chapel is handling arrangements. www.sweethomefuneral.com.