“Especially around racing season, rowing really was what kept him going,” O’Connor said. “Come April and May, he was just 20 years younger again.”
In a video made the Harvard Alumni Association this past fall called “Why We Row,” Parker called himself a teacher whose job was to “nurture traits that are already there within the rowers.”
In the same video, Parker, who continued to scull for exercise well after the end of his competitive rowing career, described the infectious love for rowing that once captured him.
“As soon as I started rowing, I had a feeling that this is wonderful,” Parker said. “It’s a great sense of power.… It takes people who are patient and willing to work hard and deal with a lot of frustration until they get it right. Once that happens, they’re hooked—they’re hooked for life.”
Parker is survived by his wife, Kathy Keeler, two sons, George and David, and a daughter, Abigail.
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—Staff writer Cordelia F. Mendez can be reached at cordeliamendez@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @CrimsonCordelia.