Bruce A. Parker

Bruce A. Parker 1950 – 2018

 

A memorial gathering will be held at Brandon Funeral Home, 305 Wanoosnoc Road, Fitchburg on Tuesday evening, August 28. Calling hours are 6-8 p.m.



Bruce A. Parker 1950 – 2018

SPENT MOST OF WORKING

LIFE WITH SENTINEL

Long before Bruce Parker became a pressman/printer at the former Fitchburg Sentinel, more than 40 years ago, he was one of many “newsboys” with paper routes in the city.

Toting a signature canvas shoulder sack, on foot or by bicycle, he was the neighborhood paper boy, delivering the Sentinel every day, regular as the sunset. His customers, some of whom also hired him for odd jobs, found him reliable, honest and hardworking, traits he kept all his life.

Mr. Parker, who recently passed away just days before his 68th birthday, stuck with the Sentinel throughout his working life. As a young adult, he became a van driver for the company.

But his goal was to land a job in the press room at the busy daily newspaper, which after merging with the former Leominster Enterprise some time ago served the twin cities and surrounding communities as the Sentinel & Enterprise. It eventually became part of Media News Group, which owns and operates publications across the country, including, locally, the Sun and the weekly Nashoba Valley Voice.

Before he was hired at the Sentinel, Mr. Parker briefly worked as a driver and a garage mechanic and sometimes with his cousin, an independent trucker, joining him on “hay runs” to northern farms.

He worked for the Sentinel and later its parent company for over four decades, through business transitions and industry tremors, and seldom if ever missed a day on the job.

When the giant presses that once clattered noisily around the clock in Fitchburg and Lowell moved to Devens several years ago, he was part of the crew, helping to put out the Sentinel, Sun and other area papers, publications and print jobs.

It was a heavy-lifting job that called for strength, stamina and expertise. It energized him.

Then, amid company restructuring, the presses were shut down a couple of years ago, with print operations delegated elsewhere. Reluctantly, Mr. Parker retired.

A son of the late Robert L. and Mary (Caouette) Parker, Bruce Aubert Parker was born in Fitchburg and grew up there, attending city schools. He graduated from Fitchburg High School in 1969.

Always ready to help family members and friends with anything from household projects to fixing cars, in recent years Mr. Parker enjoyed daily walks around town, at a clip few could surpass. For many years, he climbed Mount Monadnock almost daily and still did so occasionally; it was a favorite place.

An avid reader, Mr. Parker was also an avowed vegan and believer in animal rights who belonged to PETA and maintained a healthy, if somewhat Spartan lifestyle.

When he died suddenly of natural causes in his Lunenburg home, a recent copy of the Sentinel & Enterprise was on a table in the book-filled living room. It was the only newspaper he would buy.

Mr. Parker is deeply missed by his brother, Ken Parker and his wife Deb, of Princeton; his sister Mary-Ellen Jones and her husband Donald, of Shirley; his sister Carolyn Parker, of Fitchburg and Dorothy Karkutt, his dear friend and loving companion for many years.

“He was generous,” Ms. Karkutt said of him. “He gave to so many organizations, not just PETA,” she said. “Smile Trains, Covent House, Habitat for Humanity …” The list went on.

Mr. Parker also leaves two nephews, Christopher Parker, of New Hampshire, and Nathan Jones, of Arizona; a niece, Catherine Jones, of Shirley; grand-nieces and a grand-nephew.

A memorial gathering will be held at Brandon Funeral Home, 305 Wanoosnoc Road, Fitchburg on Tuesday evening, August 28. Calling hours are 6-8 p.m.