By: Taylor Christensen | Royal Oak Review | Published May 5, 2026
ROYAL OAK — Community members will come together to honor the life and legacy of former Mayor and City Commissioner Patricia Paruch during the grand opening of the new Dino Dig at Patricia Paruch Park, near Marywood Drive and Lloyd Avenue.
Paruch passed away in August of 2023.
The unveiling of the dino dig will take place from 1 to 3 p.m. May 9 and will include a fossil dig, inflatables, games, sweet treats, and a visit from ROary, the city’s very own T-Rex.
The Dino Dig is being made possible by a $20,000 gift that Paruch gave to the Royal Oak Civic Foundation posthumously, and the project is currently on budget, according to Community Engagement Specialist Judy Davids.
“She had identified the civic foundation as a beneficiary of a dying gift, and that money was the genesis for deciding to do some improvements to the park,” said David Paruch, Patricia’s husband. “With that gift I talked to Judy Davids, and Judy suggested that we should make some improvements to the park, and identify them with her so that not only is her name on the park, but also there is something tangible that comes from this gift.”
Patricia Paruch always had a love for collecting fossils, and that’s what sparked the idea for the Dino Dig, according to Davids.
“Pat Paruch was a lifelong fossil collector. We wanted to create something that connected to that spirit of her personality,” Davids said. “Our hope is that the new Dino Dig becomes a place where Royal Oak families explore, learn and stay curious for generations to come.”
David Paruch said that Patricia collected fossils, rocks, shells and artifacts since she was a young girl living in Ohio.
“We as a family agreed that this project is a fitting tribute to her, and that’s largely because she grew up in Ohio and was very much involved in looking for fossils. She collected Native American artifacts that they found in the field outside where she lived,” David Paruch said. “She was just involved in collecting things. Whenever we would go on a vacation, we would almost always have to bring a separate, small little suitcase for all of the rocks and other things that she would pick up and bring back as a souvenir.”
Even during Patricia’s memorial service in September of 2023 at the Royal Oak Farmers Market, some of her rocks and artifacts were scattered on tables so that members of the community could take one to remember her by.
The Dino Dig feature at Patricia Paruch Park will provide kids with an opportunity to learn about fossils while having fun looking for them, according to Paruch. The kids cannot take the artifacts home, but rather they will rebury them and try again.
“There are going to be some dinosaur eggs in there and some fossils that will be attached; they will not be something that can be taken away, but you dig for them, find them, cover them up and dig for them again,” David Paruch said.
He said this project is particularly special because Patricia originally trained to be a teacher and always had a special place in her heart for teaching young kids.
“She was one who liked the outside, she liked to garden, she liked to get her hands dirty. So, I think she would be very happy that the kids will be getting their hands dirty digging for things as she did,” he said.
Another special moment that was shared by Patricia and her family also took place right at that sandbox with their granddaughter, according to David Paruch.
“Our granddaughter, the youngest of the three grandchildren, lives in Royal Oak, and we would watch her on a regular basis for her parents, and we often took them to Waterworks Park that is now Patricia Paruch park, so she dug in that sandbox,” he said. “So, giving other kids that opportunity is probably the nicest thing, and there will be a sign right there to remember who she was.”
For more information, visit romi.gov.