Jackson Allen Parker, 83

RALEIGH, N.C. - Jackson Allen (Jack) Parker, 83, passed away on Friday, Feb. 29, 2008, in Greensboro, after a year of declining health.

Funeral services will be held at noon at Mitchell Funeral Home, 7209 Glenwood Ave., in Raleigh, NC today. Burial will follow at Raleigh Memorial Park with military honors. The family will receive friends prior to the service from 11 a.m. to noon.

Jack was born Jan. 25, 1925, in Rocky Mount, N.C., to the late Leslie Parker and Carra Meda Jackson Parker. He spent his school years in Rocky Mount and spent many of his summers at the family farm near Newton Grove in Sampson County, N.C. Both the Parkers and the Jacksons were from this area.

After his 17th birthday in 1942, Jack left high school to join the US Navy. During boot camp, he planned to become a submariner but his plans were interrupted by an influenza epidemic. After recuperating at the Navy Hospital in Philadelphia, Jack was assigned to a Navy gunnery attachment to the US Merchant Marine. He traveled widely in convoy service in the north Atlantic on Liberty ships and oil tankers. He spoke of the many trips from Venezuela to get crude oil, then to New York to drop the crude and get gas, and then make the delivery to Scotland. He made trips to Italy in 1944, France during the D-Day landings, and to Murmansk, USSR to make munitions deliveries. In 1945, he made trips to Hawaii and the many islands on the way to Okinawa. After VJ-day, Jack traveled throughout the Pacific to ferry the troops home.

After discharge in 1946, Jack went back to high school in Rocky Mount. Upon graduation in 1947 he went to NC State for 2 years and then finished his civil engineering degree at the Chicago Technical College.

On a whim, he moved to South Dakota to work for the SD roads department. This is where he met his bride, Bridget Antionette Wojcik. They were married in 1951. Sons, Joel and Mike were born in Sioux Falls, SD. In 1954 he moved the family to Raleigh, NC to work for the NC Highway Department. They initially lived outside Raleigh off Highway 70 West for a few years where daughters, Kathryn and Clarissa were born. Then in 1956 they moved to Claremont Road in Raleigh, where they lived for 43 years. This is where Neal, James, and Bridget were born.

Jack and Bridget were longtime members of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Raleigh. He served as usher, counted Sunday collections and was involved in the facility maintenance. Jack was the Boy Scout leader for several years. He enjoyed camping, hiking, and canoeing.

After his wife, Bridget died in 2000, the house was sold and Jack moved to Greensboro. Jack lived with daughter, Kathryn and then at various independent and assisted living establishments during his last years in Greensboro.

He is predeceased by his parents, Leslie and Carra Parker; his sister, Kathryn Parker Fonville, and by his wife of 49 years, Bridget Wojcik Parker.

He is survived by his sister, Eleanor Chapman of Atlanta, Ga.; brother, Albert of Rocky Mount, NC, and by his children, Joel of Lilburn, Ga., Mike of Raleigh, N.C., Kathryn Wyatt of Greensboro, N.C, Clarissa Spencer of Asheboro, N.C., Neal of Raleigh, N.C., James of Rolesville, N.C. and Bridget Wood of Cambridge. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Matt, Ben, and Anna Parker, Carra and Sarah Parker, Katie Wyatt, Erica and Austin Spencer, Emily and Jackson Parker, Grayson Parker, and Alex and Hannah Wood.