Michael Peacos, 88, died Sunday, May 5, at his home in Franklin.
He was born in Big Four, W. Va., and graduated in 1931 from Mount Hope High School in Mount Hope, W. Va. He served in the Merchant Marines for two summers on the Great Lakes.
He had been employed by Charles Parker Nurseries and then worked for American Cyanamid in Bound Brook before joining the Navy in 1942. He served on a convoy in the Atlantic, and following the war, he resumed working for American Cyanamid, where he worked for 39 years as a colorist, retiring in 1979. That year, he began serving as chairman of the Franklin Township Sewarage Authority. He also was a member of the Franklin Township Board of Education for seven years, serving as its president for one year. He was a former mayor in the old Township Committee form of government of Franklin Township.
He started a Christmas tree plantation. He also was involved in the continuation and propagation of rhododendrons. He was a charter member of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9111 in Kendall Park for more than 50 years. He and his wife did a lot of traveling by car throughout the United States, and visited every state in the Union. He was a passenger on some of the early flights of the Concorde.
His sisters, Mary Echevarria and the late Wanda Fernandez, are deceased.
He is survived by his loving wife, Anna (Kiss) Peacos; a son and daughter-in-law, Michael and Coleen Peacos of Franklin; a daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Will MacKay of Franklin; a brother, Joseph Peacos and two grandchildren, Sarah Milligan and her husband, Jamie Milligan, and Michael J. MacKay.
The funeral was held Wednesday, May 8, at M.J. Murphy Funeral Home in Monmouth Junction, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Augustine of Canterbury R.C. Church in Kendall Park. Burial was at Ten-Mile Run Cemetery in Franklin Township.
Memorial contributions may be made to St. Augustine of Canturbury Church, 45 Henderson Road, Kendall Park, NJ 08824, or VFW Post 9111, 11 Henderson Road, Kendall Park, N.J. 08824, or Princeton Hospice, 208 Bunn Drive, N.J. 08540.
