He retired in 1999, a few years after undergoing quintuple heart-bypass surgery.
At the time of his departure, Park told The Oklahoman that surviving a heart attack had prompted a review of priorities.
“After the heart attack,
those things that were seemingly important to me were no longer
important at all — like being in front of a TV camera,” he told the
paper. “The values of my family and the ones I care about were more
important.”
It’s worth
noting that Park’s main TV competitors — Bob Barry at KFOR Channel 4
and Bill Teegins at KWTV Channel 9 — also are no longer with us. Smooth
without being slick, enthusiastic without being obnoxious, Park and his
contemporaries were part of a vanishing breed. R.I.P., guys.
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