By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT’s only fitting that the late legendary track and field coach Keith Parker will be remembered for his contribution to the development of the sport where he got started at the original Thomas A. Robinson Track and Field Stadium.

Parker’s wife, Sara, said the family is welcoming the public to join the Bahamas Government, the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations and friends to come dressed in their Bahamian colours to celebrate the life and time of Parker at 6-7pm on Saturday.

The memorial service will be the public gathering for Parker, who came to The Bahamas in 1959 through an invitation from the late Thomas A. Robinson and was entrenched into the community as physical education teacher at the Government High School and as track and field coach as well as field hockey, badminton, darts and squash for The Bahamas.

During a press briefing yesterday at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Kelsie Johnson-Sills, acting director of sports,  NACAC president Mike Sands and BAAA president Drumeco Archer and CEO May Miller, were all in attendance to lend their support to the grieving family.

Sara and her family members expressed their gratitude for the out pouring of love and appreciation for Parker after he died on September 30 at the age of 92.

She stated that the family will hold a private ceremony as they say farewell to the National Hall of Famer, who was also awarded the Veterans Pin by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, now called World Athletics.

“Keith Parker shared nearly 53 years of his life with me. I was happy to be his soulmate and his cheerleader,” said Sara Parker, who was thrilled to see her husband serve as the managing director for the first three editions of the World Relays here in 2014, 2015 and 2017. “He was the best man I’ve ever met, strong, but gentle, brilliant, but practical, creative, but analytical, shrewd, but scrupulous, courageous and fiercely passionate in the defence of doing the good thing, not just the right one.”

In the words of one of his beloved former athletes, Shonel Ferguson, Sara Parker quoted her as saying:

“Keith Parker was a man not just for all seasons, but a man for all time.”

During the presser, Sara Parker talked about the fond memories she shared with her husband, not just in The Bahamas, but as he travelled around the world with our national teams.

His son, Richard Parker, a former two-time CARIFTA pole vaulter, said his father was instrumental in the lives of so many people, including himself.

“If I had to sum him up in a word and it’s fitting today, it would be he was a hero,” Richard Parker simply stated.

His daughter, Chandra Parker-Loane, who was accompanied by her husband Alan Loane and their son William, was too shaken up to speak. 

Also present was Parker’s oldest daughter Bryony Parker-Samuel from Chepstowe, South Wales.

Sands, a former track athlete turned executive in the BAAA, encouraged the public to come out and give coach Parker his farewell  on Saturday.

Sara Parker stated that in lieu of flowers, donations in his name are welcomed in support of the BAAA in their continued work and to the Cancer Society of the Bahamas.