John Thomas Parker

John Thomas "Tommy" Parker, 90, of Charleston, South Carolina, widower of Nina Kent Parker, entered into eternal rest Sunday, October 27, 2013. His Funeral Service will be held Thursday October 31, 2013, in Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1157 Sam Rittenberg Boulevard at 1:00 p.m. Interment, Live Oak Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends, Wednesday, in J. HENRY STUHR, DOWNTOWN CHAPEL, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.

Tommy was born June 27, 1923, in Charleston, SC, a son of the late Julius S. Parker and May Lawson Parker. He was the Founder of Carolina Dredging Company and Parker Marine Contracting. Mr. Parker served as the Local, Regional and National President of the American Sub-Contractors Association. He was a Merchant Marine World War II veteran, a charter member of the Charleston Yacht Club and an avid private pilot. Tommy loved Charleston so much that he never lived more than five miles from where he was born.

A graduate of the Murray Vocational School in 1941, Tommy grew up with his mother and sister during the Great Depression in Charleston. He lived on Vanderhorst Street, Queen Street, and Ashley Avenue as a boy. He began working at the News and Courier and Evening Post as a young man, delivering papers South of Broad and stuffing newspapers on the weekends to help his family pay bills. He was proud of his service in the Merchant Marines during World War II, an adventure which took him into Russia, Italy, and Turkey as he aided the Allies in the defense of freedom. Tommy was a great patriot whose love of South Carolina and the United States were unwavering throughout his years.In the mid-1940s during a brief stop in New York City, a handsome young Tommy met the one and only love of his life - a beautiful young woman named Nina Othello Kent who had ventured far from her rural Georgia home to seek a career as a model as she worked as a scheduler for CBS radio. The reluctant pair met at the USO where they were pushed together by friends and spent the evening dancing to Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller tunes. The two spent the next few years avidly corresponding mainly by mail until they decided to get married.

The pair set up house in Riverland Terrace and Tommy worked as the Manager of the Charleston City Marina while doing side jobs including dock building. In the early 1950's, Mr. Parker created his own company called Carolina Dredging Company and together with Nina and his great friends, Melvin Duffy of Hollywood and the late Shorty Manigault of McClellanville began to build a business. One by one, he hired folks from wonderful families including the Knights, Mullins, Nettles, Swains, Skinners, Browns, and Simmons, who have spent their entire careers building the company into a business which would support thirty-five families during its' heyday. The loyalty and camaraderie they created was unparalleled. Their work spread from Charleston throughout the Carolinas and down into Georgia. Bridges, docks, military installations including all of the submarine piers in the Naval Weapons Station, pipelines, power lines, TV Towers, and uncounted projects for the Medical University, Roper St. Francis, The Citadel, and the College of Charleston. Though not a college graduate, one of Tommy's proudest achievements was the work his company performed during the construction of Littlejohn Coliseum in Clemson. Mr. Parker was a lifelong supporter of IPTAY and a frequent attendee at Clemson home and away football games supporting his beloved Tigers.

In 1961, the Parkers built one of the first homes in Northbridge Terrace in West Ashley where they lived out the entirety of their lives. It was here that they raised two boys in a loving but stern household. Their doors were always open to the neighborhood children. After Nina acted as a Cub Scout den mother, Tommy acted as a chief in the Indian Guides with his two boys. Countless campouts to Hononwah, Bonnie Doone, Bull's Island, Dewees, and an uninhabited Kiawah Island followed over the years. Tommy was always a dedicated supporter of his son's football and baseball teams as he guided them off to college. He loved his grandchildren so much and he constantly lamented the fact that the younger children never got to know their grandmother.

As a child of the Great Depression, Tommy always wanted to reach out and help whomever he could. He loaned money to people who had hardships, only half-expecting to be repaid. Later in life, he supported St. Jude's, Special Olympics, and the Wounded Warriors Project on a monthly basis. In the 1930's, he saw so many of his childhood friends suffering through hunger and pain that his strong focus always seemed to center around helping kids. He was a lifelong supporter of the Thornwell Children's Home in Clinton, S.C. He supported a cottage full of children, and cried when he got thank you notes back from them for the Christmas and birthday presents he sent up there. Several times in the 1970's, he would fly children from Thornwell to visit Disney World because he knew they would never get to experience it as a child.

Mostly Mr. Parker was dedicated to his community and church. A lifelong member of Westminster Presbyterian, Tommy was instrumental in relocating the church from Rutledge Avenue in the 1970's to its current home today. He acted as an Elder, Deacon, Head of the Building Committee, Sunday School Teacher, Historian, and Oyster and Shrimp Cooker for the church community. As a past president of the American Sub-contractors Association, Tommy fought and lobbied on behalf of his fellow business owners. His efforts in Washington and throughout the country garnered many of the rights and privileges subcontractors enjoy today in the workplace.

An always humble gentleman, Tommy never sought to live above his means. His true passion was his Cherokee Six airplane which he used to fly his family and friends on countless dive trips to the Bahamas and Virgin Islands. He once flew the single engine plane all the way to Grenada. His favorite trips were the ones he took with his family to Nantucket and Maine in the late summer.

Tommy Parker's greatest testament was the love he had for Nina. She was always there for him and he was always there for her, and together they were always there for their boys. Towards the end of her life, there were years when she could no longer communicate or even recognize Tommy, but he was there sitting at her bedside every morning and every afternoon holding her hand. Even after she passed away in 2007, he never missed a single day going to visit her resting place at Live Oak - rain or shine.

On Sunday he was finally able to be by her side once more in eternal life. Congratulations Mom and Dad, the hard part is over. N4376X you are cleared to land......

Tommy is survived by two sons, John T. Parker Jr. (Sara Margaret) of Mount Pleasant, SC and Kent Julius Parker (Tania) of Wadmalaw Island, SC; grandchildren, Nina Mitchell Parker, Austen Albert Parker, Maddison Bailey Parker, Alice Kent Parker, Tess Nadia Parker and a sister, Mary P. Varella of Marietta, GA.

In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Thornwell Home and School for Children, 302 S. Broad Street, Clinton, SC 29325.