About the Author

Wally Parker
(1937 - 2006)

Wally Parker was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1937. He served in the U.S. Army at the North Depot Activity in upstate New York and was honorably discharged in January 1959. Subsequently, he returned to Pittsburgh to take his place among the Beat denizens of Shadyside.

In 1965, he enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1968 with major emphasis in economics and mathematics. Then he packed his few belongings into a U-Haul truck and with his dog Émile (Zola) journeyed west to Seattle to pursue graduate studies in math at the University of Washington.

He moved to Fall Creek, Oregon, in 1970, where he gardened, raised calves, worked in a low-income health clinic, served on the local school board, and ran one of the first natural foods stores in the state. For fifteen years he lived with the river that flowed past his door and into his soul. It was for love, but not without regret, that he moved from there in 1985. He keenly felt the absence of the living water.

Wally's diverse passion, for music, literature, art, history, photography, philosophy, mathematics, science, dogs, trains, building, and humanity and its interrelationships, is evident in his work. He delighted in unraveling the what and why and who of us and the universe we live in. He was the author of numerous poems, short stories, and novels.

Wally died on November 6, 2006, of lung cancer. He was a complex, generous, and warm human being. He lives on in our hearts and through his works, which is as he wanted it.

Wally Parker, rest in peace.