OHIO TOWMAN PRUNTY PASSES "Tow Truck Procession June 11th"

[American Towman]

  

 

Gregory Prunty, 68 of Akron, Ohio, passed away on June 5, 2022.

 

He owned Greg's Towing and Barberton Speedway.

 

Greg was preceded by his father Richard Prunty. He is survived by daughter Brittany Prunty, son Zack Prunty, grandsons Colt and Cash, mother Nancy Adkins and 11 siblings.

 

 

 

Funeral services will be held at the Prentice Funeral Home in Akron on Saturday, June 11 at 11 a.m., followed by burial at Greenlawn Memorial Park. The family will receive friends on Friday from 2 to 4 pm and 7 to 9 pm and Saturday from 10 to 11 am. Donations may be made to the Hemophilia Foundation or the American Diabetes Association.

 

The family and employees of Greg’s Towing have announced that there will be a tow truck procession following the funeral services at Prentice Funeral Home. Line up starts at 10 a.m.

 

Please contact the following people if you are able to attend, in order for the family to setup parking arrangements:

 

Mark

Cell 330 352 6931

Jason

Cell 330 607 0511

Email jk1188@sbcglobal.net

Dave

Cell 330 888 2844

Email lewisdave91@yahoo.com

Edited June 8, 2022 by American Towman

[TowNews]

Greg Prunty, 68, owner of Barberton Speedway and Greg's Towing, dies of rare cancer

 

Greg Prunty, owner of Greg’s Towing and Barberton Speedway, died Sunday while battling a cancer that had eluded detection as his health declined, family members said this week.

 

The 68-year-old businessman, one of 11 siblings and a father of two, had been showing symptoms for several weeks, said his daughter, Brittany Prunty, on Monday.

 

“He had some confusion, some vision trouble,” she said. “He was very off balance [and] he was falling.”

 

Sue Young of Stow, a younger sister of Prunty, said the symptoms started earlier this year and gradually worsened.

 

“He had been stumbling and stuttering for several months,” she said. “About four weeks ago, he fell again.”

 

By Tuesday, Brittany Prunty said when she visited, he would begin a story and lose his train of thought.

 

Still, it took two lumbar punctures to determine his illness, which the family learned about in his final hours.

 

“They found that it was lymphoma of the brain stem,” his daughter said. “It took them the entire time he was there … By the time they could get around to diagnosing him, he wasn’t responding to medication.”

 

On Sunday, Brittany Prunty was called down to the hospital as her father’s condition declined.

 

“It happened very fast,” she said. “Around 3:30 p.m. Sunday, I got the call to come down. ...He passed at 6:49 p.m.”

 

Family members and Prunty’s businesses announced the loss on Facebook, and hundreds of condolences followed within hours. Responses poured out for  man who had made a lasting impression with his generosity and commitment to his work and employees.

 

“My phone has been going nonstop,” his daughter said.

A lifetime of hard work

Prunty started working at the family business early in life, his daughter said. One of 11 children, he felt the need to pull his own weight while still in elementary school.

 

“He started around 6th or 7th grade,” she said. “He needed to help the family with bills and things [and] helped my grandpa and turned it into his own business. He was young and he has done nothing but work ever since.”

 

Sue Young said her brother was about a year older than her, and the 11 siblings, though spread out from Alaska to Louisiana, remain on good terms with Greg Prunty and each other.

 

Brittany Prunty said her father was old-school when it came to expressing his emotions, keeping them behind a sometimes gruff outer shell. Their father-daughter relationship had its ups and downs, but when he became a grandfather, he softened.

 

“When I started my family… he let us know … he would never say it, but he was proud,” she said. “You could feel his love.”

Three of Prunty’s closest male relatives have hemophilia, and the racetrack owner held demolition derbies at the speedway — even before he owned it — to raise money for Akron Children’s Hospital toward that cause, Sue Young said.

Prunty’s daughter said she remembers a night that demonstrated the changes in her father.

“During the last few months, we really started a good relationship,” she said. “After the races one night he took me and my boyfriend and friends out to a bar. He came with us and it was funny to see him with all my friends.”

'He'd give you the shirt off his back'

During his long career, Prunty crossed paths with legions of people in law enforcement, towing and the track racing community. He was a president of The Ohio Towing Recovery Association and served on the Towing Review Board for Akron during his long career.

 

“He loved what he did,” said his daughter. “He loved absolutely every second of it, whether it be towing or going racing.”

Over the years, strong friendships developed with his employees and friends.

 

“He loved what he did; he loved the people that had worked for him,” she said “The respect was always there. They have grown to be our family.”

 

Sue Young said her brother was a generous man who helped those in need.

 

“He’d give you the shirt off his back without thinking twice about it,” she said.

Buying the Barberton Speedway

In January 2020, Prunty and a partner were poised to buy the 27-acre Barberton Speedway, expecting the deal to be finalized in mid-February.

 

But closing the deal lagged, and in March, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The deal fell through, and Prunty’s partner stepped away from the purchase.

 

By June, Prunty was on his own, moving forward with an agreement that made him the sole owner of the Norton racetrack.

 

He struck a deal with Summit County Public Health to limit attendance to stay open and carried on with racing and plans to add other events, like concerts, in the future.

 

Brittany Prunty said his purchase of the speedway and commitment to its success was very much in character.

 

“He just kind of went for it,” she said. “Next thing we knew, he owned a racetrack.”

 

She said her appreciation for racing grew out of her dad’s love of the sport. He had owned a stock car and was a driver for a time. If he hadn’t introduced her to it, she said, it’s unlikely she would have followed it on her own,

Young said her brother tried to broaden the stock car racing audience and develop new racing fans as owner of the Barberton Speedway.

 

Saturday, the day of Prunty’s funeral, is kids’ night at the track.

 

“He gives bikes away once or twice a year at the track, and usually out of his own pocket,” Young said.

Brittany Prunty said the family was overwhelmed with details and the response to her father’s death and hadn’t decided how her father’s businesses would continue.

 

“The goal is to keep the doors open and keep it in the family,” she said.

'He wouldn't have known how to retire'

Visiting hours for Prunty are Friday from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. and Saturday 10 to 11 a.m. at Prentice Funeral Home on Kenmore Boulevard. His funeral will take place Saturday, and a tow-truck procession is planned, starting at 11 a.m., with trucks lining up at 10 a.m.

 

Young said the family is suggesting donations to the National Hemophilia Foundation and the American Diabetes Association.

 

Brittany Prunty said her father had talked about retiring, but it was just talk.

 

“He wouldn’t have known how to retire,” she said.

 

Two days after he died, she was still processing what had happened.

 

“We all had plans for him to come home,” she said.

 

“When he took it over on his own, he wanted to turn the racetrack into a family affair,” she said.

 

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[Moose]

R.I.P.

[TowZone]