Marty Birdman, a longtime Tucson resident credited with creating Balboa Heights Neighborhood Park and its community center, died Wednesday. He was 85.
Birdman, who moved to Tucson from Philadelphia in 1932, was a retired contractor who owned the Bimsco Hardware Store on Stone Avenue for 24 years before he sold it.
Although already in his mid-70s, Birdman volunteered in 1996 to build a park in the Balboa Heights area — north of West Grant Road between North Stone Avenue and North Oracle Road — after a truck hit a child riding a bike.
Birdman raised $100,000 with the help of 50 people, and Tucson Electric Power Co. donated an abandoned lot worth $48,000. Southwest Gas employees donated their labor.
In 1999, Birdman convinced 100 people that a neighborhood center ought to be built. He then contacted the University of Arizona's architecture college to see about getting the center designed. That call resulted in the creation of an independent study course in which students designed the center with input from local residents.
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The students eventually worked at the construction site alongside Birdman, who taught them how to tint mortar and tie rebar.
At the time, Birdman estimated the center's worth at $350,000, including labor and materials.
The Balboa Heights Neighborhood Center, 2536 N. Castro Ave., was later named the Marty Birdman Center, said his son, Ronald Birdman, 49.
His father won a variety of awards for his work on the park and the center, including the Jefferson Award, Ronald Birdman said.
His father taught him "to work hard, have a good clean life and to love your family," he said. "He was a good father, a loving father and a very good grandfather."
In addition to Ronald, Birdman is survived by daughters Penny, of Daly City, Calif., and Vicky, of Tucson; and son Edward, also of Tucson. Birdman is also survived by five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 44 years, Patricia, who died in June 2003 at the age of 69.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Evergreen Mortuary, Cemetery and Crematory, 3015 N. Oracle Road. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Monday at the mortuary.
The family asks that donations be made to the Friends of Marty Birdman Center.
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