Rodger Duane Parker

Rodger D. Parker, PhD, professor emeritus of operations research in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, died of causes related to dementia on April 1, 2022. He was 87. Born in St. Louis, he was the second son of Arch Parker, a newspaperman and Ruth White, a homemaker. His adored brother Jack was 8 years his senior. Dr. Parker excelled academically at Webster Groves High School—especially at speech and debate, English and baseball. Upon graduating in 1952, he declined a full scholarship to Dartmouth College to attend Drury College in Springfield, Missouri. At Drury, he was a multi-talented student who enjoyed theater and was cast in several roles including Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He loved poetry and literature, intending initially to focus his academic studies on analyzing Paradise Lost by poet John Milton. As the Cold War was underway, there were calls for young scientific minds to help with national security. A physics professor convinced Dr. Parker to change his major from literature to mathematics, thus beginning his lifelong professional work in applied math and operations research. In college, he met Jane Hansen and they married in 1957. After college, Dr. Parker worked for MacDonald Aircraft in St. Louis before being drafted into the Army in 1956. He was assigned to Redstone Arsenal Army Ballistic Missile Agency (ABMA), now the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama. Dr. Parker joined ABMA’s Development Operations Division under the direction of Wernher Von Braun, a German-American rocket scientist and leading figure in the development of rocket and space technology in the United States. The work of the ABMA played an important role in the development of the US rocketry and space programs. While in Huntsville, Dr. Parker met many of the scientists and mathematicians who would become lifelong collaborators and friends, including Charles Waldren and Basil Gordon. After being discharged from the military, with encouragement and recommendation from Basil Gordon, a renowned mathematician, Dr. Parker moved with his young family to Bloomington, Indiana to receive a MS in mathematics from Indiana University Bloomington. Deciding that he needed to earn a decent living, he turned down offers to continue to a PhD and took a job with Martin Marietta in Middle River, MD. Daughters Laura and Sarah were born in 1959 and 1961. After transferring to Fairchild Hiller, in Hagerstown, another aircraft company, Dr. Parker started taking classes at Johns Hopkins University. The Department of Operations Research made him an offer to continue his studies, and in 1963 he received his PhD in Operations Research under Dr. Charles Flagle, a famous pioneer of medical operations research. Dr. Parker then became a professor of operations research at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, working with Dr. Flagle in variously named departments. He taught mathematics classes at Homewood, the medical school, and the School of Hygiene. He had many graduate students and was very generous with giving research credit to others, a somewhat rare quality. His students thought highly of him. He largely worked on research projects with physicians, using mathematical modeling to describe physiological processes. People with whom he collaborated include Dr. Dean Wong, Dr. Elias Shaya, Dr. Charles Waldren, and Bill Bauer. He mentored many graduate students and authored dozens of papers and reports. And, he never took himself very seriously. During his 30+ years at Hopkins, he also consulted at Booz Allen, Pan American Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, the US Public Health Service and finally NSA. A true renaissance man, Rodger, was quickly adept at any subject he encountered, possessed endless curiosity and creativity, and loved to enlighten all with his musings. Following the death of his first wife, Dr. Parker married Betty Weinstock in 1969. They had two girls, Susie and Michelle. The couple with their 4 daughters relocated to Roland Park, where he was often seen walking in the neighborhood, book in one hand and the leashes of many dogs in the other. The family had guinea pigs which amazingly could recognize his car returning from work, as his first chore was to feed them lettuce after entering the house. He was also a regular morning fixture at Cross Keys Deli, drinking coffee, chatting with friends, and scribbling equations, always with a stubby pencil, on a yellow notepad that became his signature accessories. In retirement, Dr. Parker returned to his original passions of painting, sculpture, poetry, and yoga. Daily he wrote poems that he often read at a weekly poetry group. He will be remembered as…empathetic, individualistic, smart, kind and gentle, a lover of animals and the underdog, people, art and science. A wonderful husband, father and friend. A memorial service will be held at Bundee-Henss-Seitz Funeral Home on Saturday, April 16 at 11:30am. Dr. Parker is survived by his wife, Betty Parker and four daughters, Laurie Parker of Washington State, Sarah Parker of New Mexico, Susie Parker of California, and Michelle Huston of Kansas.