Thomas Clifford "Cliff" Furnald

KEWANEE - Thomas Clifford "Cliff" Furnald. 89, of Kewanee, died at 12:29 p.m., Sunday November 5, 2017 at OSF Saint Luke Medical Center in Kewanee.  

Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m., Monday, November 13 at Rux Funeral Home in Kewanee. Pastor Bob Curry will officiate. Visitation will be held from 4:00-6:00 p.m., Sunday, November 12 at the funeral home. Burial will be at Pleasant View Cemetery. Memorials may be directed to St. Peter’s Evangelical UCC or to the Francis Park Foundation.

He was born May 20, 1928 in Abingdon, IL, the son of Clifford Lee and Violet (Bright) Furnald. He married Arlene Krause on June 22, 1965 in Kewanee. She survives of Kewanee as does his children, Mark (Teresa) Furnald of Florida, Rhonda Kemerling (Bill Haupt) of Kewanee and Nancy (Mike) Kalvin of Champaign, IL, eleven grandchildren, fourteen great grandchildren and six great-great grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, Dorothy and children, Laurie Beth Gwinn, Sandra Lashbrook and Crellin Longenbach.

Cliff graduated from Kewanee High School in 1946 and had served in the National Guard. He had started working for his father at C. Lee Tires and had also worked for Ratliff Bros., as the lot policeman at Sandys and Hardees and had driven a school bus for Neponset schools. He was a policeman for the City of Kewanee for 27 years and had been the interterm Police Chief for several of those years prior to his retirement. For the past 22 years, he had been the caretaker and campground host at Francis Park. He was very proud of his classmates and enjoyed the monthly luncheons that they had. In earlier years, he became an Eagle Scout and had served as a Scoutmaster. Cliff enjoyed camping and being around kids often bringing bikes and scooters to Francis Park for them to use.

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