John "Jack" Furman's Obituary
John Robert Furman (Jack) grew up in the Schoharie Valley in upstate New
York, son of Robert and Charlotte Furman. His parents owned and managed
several general stores in the local area for many years. His father built his own
sailboat and Jack learned to sail early—a sport he later enjoyed with his own
boat in New Orleans and Nashville.
He studied Psychology/pre-med at Tufts University in Boston and then proceeded
to focus on medicine at Albany Medical School in Albany, NY. While
working a summer job at the Mohonk Mountain House, Jack met Mary Edwina
Parker (Edie). They married a year later on December 20, 1958 and began a
journey of more than sixty years together.
Jack carried out his internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and in the
US Public Health Service. Further medical training in Urology was completed
in New York City at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, Sloan-Kettering Memorial
Hospital and at the U.S. Public Hospital on Staten Island.
After their first two sons, Dan and Russ, were born in Staten Island, Jack and
Edie returned to New Orleans for an additional two years, where Rob was
born. Jack spent eight years of active duty in the U.S. Public Health Hospitals
for the Coast Guard, which he remembered with pride. In 1970, now with
three sons, Jack and Edie moved to Nashville, TN, where he maintained a private
practice in urology for thirty years. His interests included cycling, hiking,
fishing, hunting, woodworking, and music (orchestral and choral).
Music was a big part of Jack's life, even though he never pursued it professionally.
He was especially fond of the classical music from the Romantic period,
and visitors might hear symphonies or operas booming from the sound
system when they dropped in. After several years playing the French horn for
the local symphony, he began participating in the Sewanee choir with Edie,
and he continued singing later with the Heritage House choir in Brentwood.
Once he retired, among many other activities, Jack he studied and became a
park ranger, volunteering and leading nature tours with the Friends of the
South Cumberland State Park in Monteagle, TN. He also pursued a lifelong interest
in carpentry, and the workshop he had maintained for many years in
Nashville was expanded at their house in Monteagle. Jack could often be
found working on woodworking and furniture projects for family members
and was always happy to pass on these skills to his children and grandchildren.
jack and Edie celebrated 60 years of marriage and companionship in 2018.
Towards the end of her life, Edie began to suffer from progressive vascular
dementia and they moved into the Brentwood Heritage Home. In the summer
of 2019, Edie moved into the Somerfield Nursing Home section. Unfortunately,
the Covid epidemic hit the following year and senior facilities were particularly
vulnerable. Although she did not get sick, Edie's last months were
spent in mandatory isolation--difficult for her, Jack and the whole family. The
quarantine was lifted in March of 2021–only weeks before she passed—just in
time to allow in-person visits by her 3 sons, wives and 11 grandchildren.
After the loss of Edie, Jack was beset by health problems--a longstanding case
of prostate cancer and advanced stenosis in his lower back.
But while recovering from a difficult spinal surgery, he was visited by Donna
Huff, the pianist for the Heritage House choir. They struck up a friendship and
soon a second romance blossomed in both of their lives. They went on several
cruises and would meet every morning for breakfast and coffee. He became
great friends with her cats, Jenny and Josie. "I don't know what I've done to
be so lucky," he would say.
In the Fall of 2024, at 88 years, he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic
cancer. Treatment options were discussed, but within two weeks he passed in
the early morning of September 6, 2024, attended by Donna and his grandson,
Joseph Paine Furman. He is survived by sons Dan (Kim), Russ (Kathryn), Rob
(Carrie) and grandchildren Hunter, Spencer, Miles, Mary Haynes, Emma Claire,
John Parker, James Preston, Joseph Paine, Lucy Mae and Tallulah Jane.
He will be missed by many. On the many paths that he chose to walk, he left
colleagues, friends, family (and even Donna's cats) enriched by his positive
presence and his warm and steady embrace of life's joys and trials. He was a
paradigm of a wise and thoughtful citizen, a caretaker, a father and grandfather.
The world could use more people like Jack.
Arrangements entrusted to Spring Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery, 5110 Gallatin Pike, Nashville, TN 37216, 615-865-1101, www.springhillfh.com.
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