Alan Parker embodied Chamber

A celebration of Alan Parker’s life and contributions will be held at the University Club of Winter Park on Dec. 6 at 5:30 p.m.

Alan Currie Parker walked along Park Avenue every day, sticking his head inside the stores to say hi to the tenants and ask about the latest Winter Park news.

If there were any new happenings along the Avenue, he knew about them. If there were any community projects being considered, he knew about them. If there were any new tenants in the business district, he knew about them.

“He was kind of the Chamber of Commerce on legs,” family friend Tom Kelly said.

Two weeks ago, Parker took his last walk in Winter Park.

On Oct. 29, Parker died — and the Winter Park community lost a friend, family member and active community leader. He was 77.

“He was the essence to Winter Park,” Kelly said. “He cared very much for the city and the merchants. I mean, to me, he was Winter Park.”

Parker’s family members and friends will join the Winter Park community at the University Club of Winter Park on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 5:30 p.m. to celebrate his life.

Career in real estate

Parker was born in Massachusetts and moved to Winter Park in 1969 after spending his earlier years with the Navy as an air and radar target intelligence officer and a drilling reservist. After moving to Winter Park, he became the president of Amherst Development Inc., developer of Cloisters condominium on Lake Osceola, and later founded Alan Parker Realty Inc.

During his years in Winter Park, he served as trustee, director and member of the executive board committee for the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce and served on the Community Redevelopment Area advisory board.

He also spent the latter part of his life making plenty of friends in the community.

“He was a man who did much for his city but did it behind the scenes,” said Joe Terranova, a former Winter Park mayor who served on the CRA advisory board alongside Parker. “He’s not one out looking for glory, but he did a lot of things for the community, and a lot of people knew about it.”

Beloved citizen

Parker’s behind-the-scenes civic engagement was so extensive that it earned him the title of Winter Park Chamber of Commerce’s citizen of the year in 2007, and he remained just as active in Winter Park thereafter.

He was a major player in the project for the improvement to Orange Avenue, which would not have been completed without him, Terranova said.

In 2002, he officially retired from real estate but loved being a “citizen of Winter Park” so much that he built his retirement home across the street from his office within a block of Central Park.

Parker was also a member of the Winter Park Rotary Club, where he and Kelly sat for lunch almost every Monday.

“He’ll be greatly missed,” Kelly said. “The smile, the twinkle in his eye and the care that he had for this city — it will be tough for anyone to match that.”

Though Parker did not have any children of his own, he was still a beloved family man and member of the community. He had a passion for traveling and was very good about keeping contact with his friends and family in other locations.

“He was a devoted family man to his extended family members,” said his niece Laura Goty of Portland, Ore. “He had four nieces and nephews, and he was much more than an uncle to us.”