WWII combat veteran celebrates 99th birthday
When Dave Parker was born at Tacoma General Hospital on May 11, 1924, life in America was far different – and some would say far better – than it is today. The average price of a home was about $6,500, the Model T was the most popular vehicle priced at around $250, and Calvin Coolidge was our nation’s 30th President as our country experienced the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties.
Now at 99 years old, this beloved dad, grandfather and friend was celebrated with a birthday gathering at Mason United Methodist Church on May 7. The social hall was filled with well-wishers who came to honor Parker at his life milestone, and he enjoyed every minute of it.
"Everyone here means something to me very special in my past and I’m so happy to see them here,” Parker said to the loved ones around him. "Not everybody has a birthday at 99 years old and I hope to make it to 100 next year and you can plan on coming back.”
His close friend Stacey Moore had the honor of making a toast as everyone raised their glass to the man of the hour. "Looking around the room and seeing all the friends and family and people who have come here to honor Dave’s life is a real testimony to the way you have impacted people around you, Dave,” Moore said. "You and Donna have been such an influence and have touched us all in a very special way. We’re different because of you. We love you and wish you a very happy birthday.”
Moore was speaking of Parker’s late wife Donna who, after 60 years of marriage to Dave, passed away from cancer in 2011. She, of course, was spoken of with much love that day as Parker shared memories of her and of his very full life that began right after he graduated from Stadium High School in 1942. America was embroiled in World War II and Parker was eager to volunteer for the draft as soon as he turned 18.
"In those days, everybody was anxious to go but I couldn’t pass the physicals right off the bat,” he said. "One time it was my eyes and then it was my ears but eventually I was taken in.”
Parker went for basic training at Camp Roberts in California before he was deployed to France with the 70th Infantry Division. About 20 days after landing in Europe, as a combat infantryman Parker was sent to the front lines.
"The Army figured that the life expectancy of a combat infantryman from the day they entered combat was 67 days,” Parker recalled. He was fortunate to have received much more training than the young men who were drafted and sent overseas to fight within about three months of entering the service.
"The poor boys that were drafted and sent over with 13 weeks of training didn’t know which way was up as far as what all that noise was on the front lines. A lot of them were fatally injured quite early.”
Parker and his fellow soldiers were up against the German forces’ "Operation Nightwind,” the last major German offensive of World War II.
"The Germans had made a stand trying to push the Americans from the borders of Germany back into France. Our job was to resist that and we had to take a German town called Philippsburg to stop the attack. Some would describe it as 30 days of hell. We lost a lot of people, but we managed to keep the Germans from pushing us back.”
Parker was miraculously spared any injuries during his 89 days of combat. "I wasn’t wounded or anything, but it wasn’t because the enemy didn’t try – everything from rockets to artillery to bombs to small arms fire and I managed to avoid getting hit by any of it.”
Once he returned to his hometown, Parker enrolled in the College of Puget Sound, now the University of Puget Sound, where he pursued his interest in writing that he had developed in high school at Stadium. He also had thoughts of settling down and getting married, so he was on the lookout for that special girl who he hoped to find on campus.
"In that first fall, it was like 400 women and 1,600 ex-GI students so it was competitive,” he laughed.
Through his work on the university newspaper, he met a young woman who was brought on as the society editor and she soon became Mrs. Donna Parker. The two were married on Sept. 3, 1950, in the very church where his 99thbirthday party was being held, even though Mason United Methodist Church back then was not the visually grand place of worship it is today.
A few years prior to being wed, in 1947 Parker and his brother opened Mercury Press in downtown Tacoma at South 25th Street and Tacoma Avenue South. When his brother married, Parker became the sole proprietor and led a successful business until he was 72 years old. Mercury Press closed in 1996 after nearly 50 years of providing marketing materials for big clients like the Roman Meal bread company, Brown & Haley and Nalley’s Fine Foods.
Parker got involved with the 6th Avenue Business District in 1999, just in time to be on the committee for Tacoma’s first Art on the Ave event. He produced a printed monthly newsletter for the business district that he wrote and published until Donna became ill and Parker devoted his time to taking care of her.
Considering that Parker is among America’s "Greatest Generation,” qualities like fortitude, courage and patriotism are deeply instilled in the man such that he lived on his own independently until February last year. Now in an assisted living community, Parker remains sharp, witty and always with a great story to tell.
"He is so independent,” said his son-in-law John Fletcher. "This last great generation makes him so admirable.”