BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
PHOTO COURTESY OF DORN’S CLASSIC COLLECTION Parker administers a smallpox inoculation to a child at a clinic in 1963. RED BANK — A story recounted at his funeral service speaks volumes about the life of Dr. James Westley Parker Jr.
A beloved and respected member of the community, Parker died on Oct. 24 at the age of 85 at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank.
Speaking Saturday from the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church on Harding Road, the Rev. Dr. Donald Warner told of being a guest in Parker’s house and being startled awake early one morning by a commotion outside his window.
“I heard a noise out back,” Warner said. “I thought it was a burglary and I was about to call the police. When I looked out the back window, I saw Dr. Parker opening his office at 5 a.m.”
What Warner did not know at the time was that Parker would rise before dawn each morning to open his office early so that his working-class patients would not lose a day’s wages.
According to Warner, Parker would take care of patients regardless of their ability to pay.
The former Red Bank Regional High School superintendent said he first met Parker in 1975, when he was recruited by Parker and other members of the RBR Board of Education. Warner and his family lived in Parker’s father’s house while their house was being built.
His friend and mentor was, according to Warner, also a very talented musician who would play piano and sing religious hymns for visitors.
“Sometimes you would get stuck in his living room listening to him,” Warner chuckled. “You just got locked in.”
Warner said that his students at RBR would also sometimes get locked into a room with Parker, for a very different reason.
“The students wouldn’t be allowed to leave until they pronounced what they were saying in proper English,” Warner said. “Dr. Parker would say to me, ‘They know exactly what to say.’ They would just get caught speaking in street slang.”
Warner said that although his relationship with Parker began on a professional level, the two quickly developed a friendship spanning more than 20 years.
“He was really a role model for me,” said Warner. “I truly loved him.”
Parker served on the Riverview Medical Center staff, which is where Dr. Eugene Cheslock met him in 1975. Cheslock is director of the Parker Family Health Clinic on Shrewsbury Avenue, named for Parker and his father, Dr. James W. Parker Sr. , and cousin and dentist James Alvin Parker. The clinic opened in 2000.
“He believed in dignity and good self-image, and tried to instill it in everybody,” said Cheslock. “You couldn’t help but admire him.”
Cheslock said that he would watch the way Parker interacted with his patients, treating them with dignity, respect and humor.
“It is unfortunate that brand of medicine is fading,” said Cheslock. “Both he and his father deserve all of the remembrances that have taken place in town.”
Cheslock was referring not only to the Parker Family Health Clinic, but to the renaming of West Bergen Place as Drs. James Parker Blvd., in honor of the three Parker family members who ministered to the medical needs of the community. The street was renamed in 2002.
Some of Parker’s other honors included the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and recognition by the NAACP, and the Ministerial Alliance and the Red Bank Men’s Club.
Parker, who was born on Bank Street, is survived by his wife, Shirley Parker, and two sons, James W. Parker III, Red Bank, and Guyton W. Parker, Florida.
Born in Red Bank on April 20, 1919, Parker was the first child born to Dr. James Westley Parker Sr. and Marie Holmes Parker of Red Bank.
He attended the borough public schools and graduated from Red Bank High School where he made his mark as an outstanding student and basketball player, acquiring the nickname “Ichabod Crane,” later shortened to “Icky,” because of his height.
Parker attended Howard University, Washington, D.C., and earned acclaim as an All-Conference Center and an outstanding student until his graduation in 1944. He served an internship and medical residency in Norfolk, Va., and opened his medical practice in his hometown in 1947 at 179 Shrewsbury Ave., where he practiced until 2001.
His medical practice was interrupted when he served as a captain in a front-line MASH Unit in the United States Army Medical Corps during the Korean War.
He was a life member of the New Jersey Medical Association and the American Medical Society. He was christened and held membership in the Shrewsbury Avenue A.M.E. Zion Church.
Parker was also founder of the Red Bank Men’s Club, a charter member and the first president of Zeta Epsilon Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and held membership in the Monmouth County Men’s Club and the New Jersey Chapter of the National Guardsmen.
He was preceded in death by his sister, Perzealia Parker Goodwin of Richmond, Virginia, and by his first wife, Alice W. Parker.

