David Stuart Parker


David Stuart Parker served as the Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1971 to 1975.

Biography

He was born on March 22, 1919 at Fort Huachuca in Arizona to Army officer, David Parker. He had a brother, Ambassador Richard Bordeaux Parker.
He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1940, an institution where he later taught. In World War II, he served on the staff of Admiral Chester Nimitz and on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur in Tokyo, Japan as the chief of construction. In 1948, he returned to the United States and completed a master's degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He married Betty Augur and they had as their children: David Parker and Bruce Parker of Washington, D.C.; Steven Parker of Fairbanks, Alaska; and a daughter, Anne Parker Diggory of Saratoga Springs, New York.
He was Lieutenant Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1963 to 1965. He served a tour in Vietnam commanding engineers from 1968 to 1969. He was Governor of the Panama Canal Zone from 1971 to 1975.
He died of congestive heart failure on May 9, 1990 Marin General Hospital at Greenbrae, California. He was 71 years old, and had been living in Belvedere, California.