Park Springs Couple Finds Love during WWII

When visiting Park Springs continuing care retirement community located in Stone Mountain, it isn’t unusual to run across someone who has a great story. Many of those who reside here have had some memorable life experiences. For Rita and Howard Dean, this was quite the case since they lived a very full life that took them all over the world before they settled down at Park Springs.

As a young adult, Howard served in the US Army during WWII and he was deployed to many destinations throughout the world, like the Philippines and Japan. After the war ended, Howard was stationed in Manila, where he met Rita. Rita was 17 at the time and assisted the military by doing clerical work. They were immediately attracted to each other when they met and not long afterward got married.

Unfortunately, only three months into their wedded bliss, Howard was forced to move back to the states due to a life-threatening illness. So, for about three months the couple corresponded via letters until the day that Rita was able to leave the Philippines to be with Howard. During the following decades Howard settled in as a professional, spending most of his time working at Scientific Atlanta and at the Research Institute at Georgia Tech.

For this couple that traveled all over the world, they couldn’t have asked for a more ideal living situation than Park Springs. They found out about the community in 1999, before construction even began, and moved in once it was finished in 2004. After about a year at Park Springs, Howard suffered a stroke, but because of the on-site health support as well as the support from his wife and other Park Springs members, the two are still able to enjoy the amenities and activities as a couple. It was after the stroke that two realized how wise of a decision it was for them to buy a home at Park Springs.