Robert Phillip Parent

Husband and father

Robert Parent, former sergeant with the Marblehead Police Department, passed away at Lawnwood Medical Center in Ft. Pierce, FL, on April 28, 2010, with his wife and children at his side. Bob was eighty-two years old, and was a resident of Port St. Lucie for the last ten years.

A native of Salem, MA, Bob was a member of the U.S. Navy during WWII, where he served in the Pacific Campaign, and also of the Korean War. He became a member of the Salem police force in 1956, before transferring to the Marblehead police force in 1966, where he and his family lived and he finally retired in 1985. During his tenure with the Marblehead Police, Bob received numerous decorations including Citizen of the Year in 1975 from the Marblehead Chamber of Commerce. It was during that year that he single-handedly apprehended an armed suspect in the course of a robbery at a Marblehead restaurant. Bob was also one of the original two officers to be selected as the newly instated position of Sergeant with the department. In 1978, he became the departments first K-9 officer and, together with his partner and family pet Bruno, provided support to many local police departments.

Bob spent his every free moment with his family and enjoyed nothing more than when all of them were together. He will be missed by many, including his lifelong partner, best friend and wife of sixty-three years, Grace Parent. Their surviving six children are Irene Bishop and her husband Chester, of Rowley, MA, Judy Moore and her husband Richard, of Hamilton, MA, Susan Graffam and her husband Alan, of Yarmouth, ME, Steven Parent and his wife Tracy, of Danvers, MA, Timothy Parent and his wife Edwinna, of Marblehead, MA, and Peter Parent and his wife Yvonne, of Cumberland, ME. He is also survived by his fourteen grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

A gathering of friends and relatives will be Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 10:00AM – 11:00AM at the Aycock Funeral Home Chapel in Port St. Lucie, FL. A Memorial Service will follow at 11AM at the Funeral Home.

Services will be at a later date at Star of the Sea Church on Atlantic Avenue in Marblehead.

Donations may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, P.O. Box 96011, Washington D.C. 20090-6011.