CAMDEN – Long before the term global warming became commonplace, Richard “Dick” Burbank Parker dedicated himself to moderating modern technology’s impact upon the Earth he so dearly loved. A keen understanding of the cycling of systems, natural and manmade, deeply inspired his life’s work. Whether analyzing data for the dam removal that would allow the yearly fish run to replenish the land with nutrients from the ocean, recording daily temperature and rainfall in order to understand annual variations, teaching how to enrich soil through the art of composting, observing how the nut gathering of squirrels enables the planting of mighty oaks, or careful accounting for his personal energy use and carbon emissions, his actions were always tempered by sharp observation and a complex understanding of the greater reaches of cause and effect. He led not only through meticulous profession-alism as economist, teacher and environmentalist, but also by the consistent, quiet example of his daily choices. Born in 1939, in Hackensack, N.J., he grew up in nearby Glen Rock, N.J. He was a ham radio operator in high school, and studied electrical engineering at MIT as a Sloan scholar. Realizing this path could only lead him into the heart of the 1950s military-industrial complex, he took time out to work eight years in radio, as chief engineer and news editor in Sanford, news director in Meriden, Conn., and chief engineer at WCRB, Waltham, Mass. He returned to MIT to get a degree in economics, and received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston College. As a graduate student in the late ’60s, he designed and executed the first econometric forecasting experiments with a large, state-of-the-art computer sim-ulation of the U.S. economy for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, thereby developing a healthy skepticism of large computer models. In the early ’70s, he taught regional economics at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and then moved with his family to Camden, during the energy crisis of the mid-’70s to embark on a venture in maritime trading on the coast. He taught economics and its flaws, the omission of environmental and social “externalities” and market failures at Colby College, University of Maine – Augusta and College of the Atlantic. During the early years in Camden, Dick did energy audits for homeowners, provided management advice and dispute resolution for small businesses and managed commercial pro-perty. In the late ’70s, he wrote a weekly environmental column, Earth Notes, for the Camden Herald and was active in the campaigns to close Maine Yankee. He collaborated on an experiment in integrated pest management in Ben Davis Orchards with Tony Bok, and served as treasurer for Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, helping to get it on sound financial footing. He was joint author of a research monograph, “The Family Farm in the Web of Community,” 1985, with several other Maine scholars. In the ’80s, he researched the history of Northwest Atlantic commercial fisheries for the U.S. Department of State in the dispute with Canada over the fisheries boundary in the Gulf of Maine. And for three years, he taught math and more, to young children in the small cooperative school in his home. From 1984 to 1995, as technical analyst and division director at Maine Public Utilities Commission, MPUC, he researched utility economics and planning practices, and testified in utility rate cases, promoting “avoided cost” accounting for electricity generation, advocating for energy efficiency and helping justify Central Maine Power’s withdrawal from Seabrook nuclear power plant, at cost savings to the state. His work during his time at MPUC resulted in Maine’s adopting utility planning and operation policies that served as national models for promoting energy efficiency. He was well respected for his dedication to the public interest and well loved for his kindness by his colleagues. After retiring, he consulted for a coalition of conservation organizations working with the State of Maine to remove the Edwards Dam on the Kennebec River. Dick’s economic analysis proved critical in convincing federal officials to order removal of the dam, the first time this ever occurred in the United States. He also consulted with a group of New England environmental organizations, dubbed the “Dirty Dozen” campaign, which work-ed to cut pollution from the region’s grandfathered power plants. With the assistance of Dick’s economic and technical analysis, the campaign was successful in winning a 75 percent reduction in regional power plant pollution. After 9/11, and almost until his death, he sent out a weekly e-newsletter, The Acorn, a two-page edited digest of choice political and environmental news articles documenting essential problems of the Middle East conflict and compelling energy and ecological issues of our time. Dick enjoyed books, the Bay Chamber Concerts, his grandchildren, reading aloud, making pancakes, walking, camping and watching squirrels. He cared for and counseled his family, and was a patient and courteous teacher, mediator and mentor to friends and co-workers. After spending much of his life working to reduce pollution and energy consumption, he succumbed to cancer, a common environmental illness. He died March 5, 2008, at the age of 69, at home in Camden. He is survived and greatly missed by his wife, Beedy Parker of Camden; sister, Eleanor Russell of Deer Isle; son, Marsten Parker and wife, Lori, of Reading, Mass.; daughters, Jennifer Tingle and husband, Ed Cunningham, of Portland, Daaby Tingle and husband, Glen Mittelhauser, of Gouldsboro, Nell Parker and husband, Jeremy Hart, of Portland, Ore.; nephew, John Russell and wife, Kay, of Verona; and grandchildren, Kristin Parker, Julia Par-ker, Celeste Mittelhauser, Pepin Mittelhauser, Helen Cunningham and Will Cunningham. A memorial celebration of Richard Parker’s life is planned for early summer. Donations may be made to Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, P.O. Box 170, Unity ME 04988, www.mofga. org or Environmental Health Strategy Center, P.O. Box 2174, Augusta ME 04438. www.preventharm.org.
RICHARD BURBANK PARKER
