BOCA RATON — Glen King Parker of Boca Raton died Sept. 2 at Boca Raton Regional Hospital after a brief illness. He was 85.
Born in Manhattan and raised on Long Island, the son of Glen J.A. Parker and Valeta King, Mr. Parker moved to South Florida in the 1950s, where he married and spent all of his adult life.
Early in life he was not shy about expressing his opinion — at age 13 penning a published letter to the editor in famed Life magazine defending the then-maligned scientist Albert Einstein. His entrepreneurial skills also started early, with an accident photography business on Long Island and then real estate and investment companies in South Florida.
He is best known for his Institute for Econometric Research, which revolutionized the investment-advice publishing industry through the application of computer-generated forecasts that required overnight use of some of the most powerful computers of the early 1970s. The institute also popularized a series of low-cost newsletters for investors, beginning with Market Logic in 1975, that helped make investment information widely available.
Mr. Parker pioneered many early direct marketing techniques that became standard fixtures of subscription marketing. The business was so successful that, after its launch of Mutual Funds magazine in 1993, Time Inc. acquired it in 1998.
He was devoted to causes of freedom of the press and civil liberties. As chair of the freedom of the press committee of the Newsletter Publishers Association, he spearheaded the fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark case for publisher freedom. The case, Lowe v. SEC, was unanimously decided by the 1985 court in favor of the publishers. He was also a longtime supporter of the ACLU.
He loved fine wine and dining and was a gourmet cook. He championed local chefs and restaurateurs and served for years as bailee (chair) of the local chapter of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs, an international gastronomic society.
He was a truly devoted husband, son and father, and was tireless in making sure those he loved were supported and successful.
Surviving Mr. Parker are: his wife, Sandy, of Boca Raton; his son and daughter-in-law, Randy and Nancy Parker of Brookline, Massachusetts, and children Allee, Myles and Camden; his daughter and daughter-in-law, Robin Parker and Denise Jayroe of Portland, Oregon, and son Zayn; his daughter, Suzanne Maddux of Alpharetta, Georgia, and children Mackenzie, Parker and Spencer (Tripp); his stepson, Sean Eastham of Paris, France, and children Valentine, Sacha and Tristan; his stepdaughter and stepson-in-law, Ashley and Sean Caulfield of Cohasset, Massachusetts, and children Owen, Maddie and Finn; and his sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Candy and Mike Donnelly of Boca Raton.
In lieu of flowers or gifts, please contribute generously to the Alzheimer’s Association, www.alz.org, in honor of Sandy Parker’s ongoing battle with the disease.
—Obituary submitted by the family
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