TRIBUTES have been paid to a rowing stalwart who was both a competitive oarsman as well as an inspirational teacher and coach to generations of young rowers.
Bill Parker, from Durham, died peacefully on June 4, having suffered a recent illness, aged 86.
His funeral took place last Friday, followed by a gathering at Durham Amateur Rowing Club (DARC), fittingly on the eve of the city’s regatta.
Born the son of a Weardale farming family, he attended Wolsingham Grammar School and learned to row at Loughborough University.
He worked as a woodwork and, later, design technology teacher, initially at Chester-le-Street Modern School, then at Consett Grammar School, where he introduced rowing, and at St Leonard’s Catholic School, in Durham, where he founded a boat club, in 1971.
DARC chairman Barry Hudson, said Mr Parker was, “a top-level competitor” and later, as a coach, became, “a dominant force in junior rowing”, on a national level.
“He became a close friend and will be very much missed by everyone whose lives he touched.”
A widower, since the death of wife May, last year, he leaves daughters Clare and Christine, herself a DARC member, and grandson, John.
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