October 7, 2013|By Sara K. Clarke, Orlando Sentinel
Chauncey G. Parker III was a professor of English who had an uncanny ability to build rapport with students as they made their way through Comp I, the much-maligned writing class required for graduation.
But Parker also held a spot in history, among the men who decades ago navigated the Cuban Missile Crisis and helped the U.S. avert a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
Parker, author of two books and dozens of editorial letters to the Orlando Sentinel, died Monday. He was 86.
"It was fascinating to talk to someone who was there … in the room as they were channeling information back to President Kennedy so he could make some critical decisions," said David Sutton, dean of humanities and foreign language for Valencia College's East Campus. "His work was highly regarded by the faculty here. And he was just a great colleague and a great pal. Students loved him."
Sutton said Parker was initially reluctant to talk about his role as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Security Council in October 1962. He served as an adviser to Adlai Stevenson, the U.N. representative who famously confronted his Soviet counterpart about the presence of missiles in Cuba.
Parker was skeptical about the missile crisis itself, saying decades later that he wondered whether it was perhaps the work of those who wanted to counter the mounting public perception that President John F. Kennedy was "more showbiz than substance."
Parker also told students then of his upbringing in Washington, D.C., as a son in a socially prominent family. His father was a founding partner of the Washington stock brokerage firm, Auchincloss Parker and Redpath — Auchincloss being the name of Kennedy's stepfather-in-law. He studied at Harvard and got his job in government service by appealing to an old family friend, Henry Cabot Lodge.
Parker took great pride in serving in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II.
"As long as I live, I shall never forget the day my father, a colonel in the Marines, swore me in while my mother stood off in the corner, engulfed in tears. It was the proudest moment of my life, second only to finishing Parris Island alive," he wrote.
Parker was married twice and had three children. While his first marriage gave him his children, his second gave him 40 years of "true, unfettered happiness," he said.
He taught writing and literature for 15 years at Valencia, a time he called "unquestionably the happiest years in my life."
Parker is survived by his daughter, Cecilia Mercer of Athens, Ga.; two sons, Chauncey Parker IV of New York City and Stuart Parker of New Canaan, Conn.; and seven grandchildren. He was pre-deceased by his second wife, Adelina Parker.
Baldwin Fairchild Funeral Home, Ivanhoe Chapel, Orlando, is handling arrangements.