Malcolm Truman Stark

Malcolm Truman Stark 6/28/29 – 5/20/12

Malcolm died at the age of 82. He was a long time resident of Fayetteville, New York and more recently Orlando, Florida. He died at home, surrounded by family after a courageous battle with cancer.

He was born in Pittston, PA to Truman and Gladys Stark on June 28th, 1929. Malcolm, known as Mal, had a younger sister, Crystal Ann Smith (Mrs. George Smith), who remembered him as "the kindest and most caring brother a sister could want, who always took care of me." As a child, Mal loved to make things. He made his own toys and even skis out of barrel staves. He was hospitalized multiple times with everything from a broken leg, to multiple bouts of pneumonia, to polio. In the hospital, Mal was known for sharing his toys and possessions with other children who had none.

Mal had a dream to attend college, and against the wishes of his family, he joined the Navy with the intent of both serving his country and saving the money for education. His childhood polio restricted his options within the Navy, but Mal was accepted into the electronics technician program.

While in the Navy, Mal was home on leave and went out on a blind date with Patricia Cipolla, known as Pat, which began a five and a half year courtship while Mal continued his service in the Navy. Mal got out of the Navy at the age of twenty two, and went to work for General Electric as a radar and sonar technician, traveling the country working on systems and continuing to save money for college. He was accepted at Penn State University and left GE to attend school in electrical engineering. Within one week of graduating college, on June 16th 1956, Mal and Pat were married in Exeter, Pennsylvania.

Mal and Pat then moved to Syracuse where Mal was accepted into the honors program at GE, who then paid his tuition at Syracuse University to pursue his masters degree in electrical engineering. Pat also worked at GE as a secretary. After completing the honors program, Mal was accepted into GE's ABC program, where he was exposed to several different engineering disciplines within GE. The program included time spent working in both Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a summer in Ithaca, New York. They then moved back to Syracuse where Mal worked in advanced development sonar for the remainder of his thirty three year career with GE.

On September 18th, 1959, Pat gave birth to Malcolm Jr, followed two and half years later, on May 21st, 1962, with the birth of daughter, Tami Ann. Mal made time with family a huge priority, working to give his children things he hadn't had the chance to experience during his childhood. The family spent time enjoying nature, from taking day trips to local state parks, eventually graduating to multi-day camping trips, culminating in a cross country camping vacation during the summer of 1972. He encouraged the kids at early ages to take piano, swimming and skiing lessons, and helped them both with their career decisions as they prepared to enter college. Malcolm Jr eventually entered medical school and is now a gastroenterologist in Greensboro, North Carolina. Tami went to work as a dietitian, which she put on hold to raise a family, but is now re-entering the field in Orlando, Florida.

In addition to spending time with family, Mal had several hobbies. He painted – he particularly loved Van Gogh, and did a number of projects in stained glass and woodburning. His true passion was woodworking, which started as a child when he made simple toys and continued with small projects for his children. He stayed up all night making a stove for Tami one Christmas, and went to work the following day. Simple projects became more complex, and Mal learned to both design and make furniture. His first major project was a family room set, which was well used for over forty years. It was followed by continual upgrading of the house with numerous other works including hardwood and tile flooring, remodeling the family room, a dining room set and full kitchen remodel with custom made cherry cabinets. He also helped children with home projects including small things like hanging pictures and mirrors to re-roofing a garage in San Diego. Upon his retirement from GE in 1991, Mal was able to devote more of his time to woodworking, eventually expanding his workshop to include a full suite of professional equipment, enabling him to tackle increasingly more sophisticated projects.

Winemaking was also a favorite pastime and passion. It began as an annual event with Pat's brother in law, Joseph Soricelli – where they would crush their own grapes and store the wine in wooden whiskey barrels. Mal eventually moved his winemaking base to their home in Fayetteville, where he converted a portion of the basement to a wine cellar, and continued the annual festivities with friends, co-workers and family. A full day of hard labor making wine was always followed by a wine and cheese tasting party, sampling wines from previous years' efforts. The wine was enjoyed by all at family get- togethers throughout the years.

Another hobby and interest that Mal pursued after his retirement was investing. Always an avid reader and thorough researcher, he leveraged these attributes in this arena with passion, and enjoyed sharing what he learned with both children and grandchildren.

Mal's first grandchild, Patrick William, was born to Tami and her husband Bill on April 24th, 1991. Mal celebrated with blue balloons on their Fayetteville mailbox, which had the neighbors wondering whether Pat was going for round two. In a period of six years, six additional grandchildren followed. Four were born to Malcolm and Terry Stark: Kathryn Virginia (Kate), Lindsay Rose, Theresa Clare (Tess) and Malcolm Charles (Mac). Two more followed for Tami and Bill: Zachary Stark (Zack) and Jaime Elizabeth. Even though his grandchildren lived in other states, Mal and Pat made it a priority to be involved in their lives. He regularly visited both sets of grandchildren, often bringing simple woodworking projects he could do with them. Whenever they came to visit in Fayetteville, they knew they could look forward to spending time with him in his workshop, making toys, crafts and artwork.

After experiencing the physical challenges that he did during his childhood, with Pat's help, Mal made good health a priority throughout his adult life. He pursued knowledge about nutrition, exercise and supplements with his characteristic methodical approach and attention to detail. Less than a year ago, at the age of eighty one, he was on no prescription drugs and enjoyed regular daily exercise in addition to the time he spent on his projects.

The past eleven months were an incredible challenge for Mal. He handled the loss of his health and independence without complaint, working hard to assist Pat in all aspects of his care through his final days.

In lieu of flowers the family would like donations to be made to :

Hospice of the Comforter
480 West Central Parkway
Altamonte Springs, Fl 32714