The Downside Of Getting Old

Outliving Your Peers


The Carroll High School Class of 1977 lost a great man yesterday when my good friend Mike Parker passed away. Rumor has it he died of cancer.

I was shocked.

I hadn’t seen or heard from Mike since our last class reunion about four years ago because his job as an American Airlines pilot kept him in Dallas while I rambled around Georgia and Florida.

Mike and I grew up together, attended vacation Bible school together, went to church and school together, were in Boy Scouts together, and graduated as part of the pride of our High School class having ambitions to fly fighter jets in the military.

Mike got into the Air Force Academy, while David, Steve, and I had to settle for ROTC scholarships to our respective colleges.

Mike was the only one of us that actually made it to our goal, as my vision went bad (you had to be 20/20 to fly jets) and my determination sagged in my sophomore year of school. I don’t know what happened to David and Steve, but Mike ended up graduating and going to flight school, and he flew F-16’s during the cold war years prior to Operation Desert Storm.

After a couple of tours of duty, Mike got married and opted out of the service, taking a job flying SAAB jets for American Airlines. A horrible auto accident back in the late 1980’s killed his wife and seriously injured him, but as usual—Mike recovered and kept on flying.

He remarried a few years later, to a OB/Gyn doctor, and they had a couple of kids together as he continued his career in aviation.

You couldn’t ask to know a nicer gentleman than Mike Parker. He was just a really good guy—the type of guy that you would want sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet with his thumb on the missile and bomb buttons or hanging onto the yoke of the airliner delivering you and your kids home for Christmas.

We’re all going to miss you a great deal, Mike...rest in peace.