DeLauro Statement on the Passing of the Honorable Henry “Hank” Parker
NEW HAVEN, CT (October 1, 2018) – Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today released the following statement on the passing of the Honorable Henry "Hank" Parker.
"New Haven has lost one of its community treasures with the passing of Henry ‘Hank' Parker. Hank and his wife, Jan, were close friends with my parents and I have known them for most of my life. They have been a veritable institution in New Haven, and in my neighborhood of Wooster Square."
"Born one of seven children in Baltimore, Hank first moved to Connecticut after serving two years in the Army, obtaining a degree from the Hampton Institute in Virginia, and turning down an offer to play with the Harlem Globetrotters. Maryland and the Globetrotter's loss was Connecticut's gain. For the next fifty years, Hank would serve our state ably as an educator, activist, public official and powerful crusader for both social change and fiscal responsibility. Elected Connecticut's State Treasurer in 1974, he not only ensured the fiscal solvency of our state finances, but used that pulpit to further the civil rights movement. He created a Yankee Mac, a home mortgage program for the state that emphasized opportunities for urban renewal, chaired the Governor's Task Force on South Africa investment policies that yielded one of the first model anti-apartheid bills in America, and he chaired the 1977 State Citizen's Committee that recognized Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a state holiday, seven years before Congress followed suit."
"Shirley Chisholm, the nation's first African-American woman elected to the US House of Representative once said "service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth." Hank paid that rent time and time again leaving an indelible mark and a legacy of service and advocacy that helped to shape the very character of our city and our state."
"It is truly the end of an era. I am heartbroken for Jan, as well as his children Janet and Curtis. He will be deeply missed by all of those fortunate enough to have known him."