He was 94. Credit: The photo below is courtesy of the author. Big Brains podcast:Why Mourning Is Essential to Our Well-Being. "I will never forget the pleasure he took in exploring a science problem, and his terrific physical insights which were then buttressed by his analytical skills," Rosner added. Harold Eugene Miley August 20, 1939 - February 28, 2023 Obituary Help tell the story of your loved ones unique life. NASA honored Dr. Parkers scientific contributions in 2018 by naming a spacecraft after him that was destined to travel straight into the suns crown. The gas and dust trailing from a comet does not flow behind it, as one might expect; instead, its direction always points away from the sun. He proudly served in the Frank Gene Parker, 84, passed from this life Saturday, May 7, 2022, at the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, Jackson. The calculations showed that the flow started slow near the sun and accelerated to supersonic speeds as it moved away. After completing a bachelors degree in physics at Michigan State University in 1948 and a doctorate at the California Institute of Technology in 1951, Dr. Parker was an instructor and then an assistant professor at the University of Utah before moving in 1955 to the University of Chicago, where he remained for the rest of his academic career. Among Parkers many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, the Kyoto Prize, the Crafoord Prize, the American Physical Society Medal for Exceptional Achievement in Research and its James Clerk Maxwell Prize. Dr. Parker recalled in 2018 that his solar wind theory was widely criticized and even mocked at publication. A few months afterward, Dr. Parker went to visit the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland, where the spacecraft was built and tested. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. . Eugene Parker, astrophysicist namesake of NASA solar probe, dies at 94, Roger Goodell, Muriel Bowser discussed future of RFK site in December call, Everything you need to know about the National Cherry Blossom Festival, Kyle Kuzma, Wizards start fast and dont look back in win over Raptors, destined to travel straight into the suns crown. With over 1,900 locations, Dignity Memorial providers proudly serve over 375,000 families a year. Learn more here. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. On the morning of Aug. 12, 2018, Parker was at Cape Canaveral with three generations of his family to witness the launch of his namesake Parker Solar Probe, which has since completed multiple revolutions around the sun and collected extraordinary data. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. March 21, 1939 - The mission, originally dubbed Solar Probe+, was named for Parker in 2017, making him the first living scientist to see a spacecraft named in his honor. ", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Here's everything we know, Richardson sets QB mark for vertical, broad jump, QB Young 5-10 1/8, 204 pounds at NFL combine, Sources: Patriots tell QB Hoyer he's being cut, Horns' Robinson: Versatility worthy of early pick, Jones: Not fixated on Cowboys' drought, just '23, Sources: Raiders plan franchise tag for Jacobs, WR Addison to Steelers' Pickett: 'Come get me', Wolverines' Turner wows with 4.26 40 at combine, Everything you need to know about Geno Smith's contract negotiations. In his early years, he attended Concordia High. The equation describing the propagation of charged particles in the heliosphere was derived by Parker (1965). Football agent Eugene Parker of Relativity Sports, whose client list included Hall of Famers Deion Sanders and Emmitt Smith, died Thursday night. Eugene married Shirley Parker in 1955 and they had three sons together, David, Ronald and George. He was the Eugene Ernie Parker, Jr., 60, of Parsonsburg passed away Friday, January 28, 2022 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In 1972, Dr. Parker proposed that a multitude of tiny solar flares too tiny to be easily observed were heating the corona. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Baker & Parker Stephen Decatur Scholarship Fund at the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc., 1324 Belmont Ave., Suite 401, Salisbury MD 21804. Robert Eugene PARKER. Hazel met and married J.D. Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Parker represented the likes of Curtis Martin, Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith and Rod Woodson during their Hall of Fame. Keith was born in Laurens, SC, August 20, 1961, a son of Roy and Rita Parker. A unique and lasting tribute for a loved one. One of the remaining mysteries of the sun is why its outer atmosphere is so hot. But think critically about it because if youre wrong, you want to be the first one to know that., I dont think it is in any way an overstatement to say that the field of heliophysics exists today largely because of the work of Dr. Eugene Parker, said Nicky Fox, director of NASAs Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington and a friend of Parkers. The Parker Solar Probes successful launch, which Parker attended at age 91, has since provided unprecedented views of the sun. Mariner 2, a NASA spacecraft en route to Venus. Although the common wisdom among scientists in the 1950s was that space was empty, comets had already suggested otherwise. Gene represented to me the ideal physicistbrilliant and accomplished, personable, articulate, but also humble, said Robert Rosner, the William E. Wrather Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and a longtime colleague. He first worked as an instructor and assistant professor at the University of Utah. The mission is expected to continue observations until 2025. He was this ideal of a physicist: a person who has a strong intuition, who can see one step ahead and who can then sit down and show the intuition is correct, she said. The spacecraft uses four instrument suites to study the superheated corona in an attempt to understand where the solar wind originates. I have never made a significant proposal but what there was a crowd who said, Aint so, cant possibly be, Parker responded. This principle seems to be the essential effect providing the dissipation of magnetic free energy that creates the X-ray corona of the Sun and similar stars. Dr. Parker later said he was surprised that NASA had asked for his permission. He was the first born of Eugene and Hazel Marie (Anderson) Parker. 108 William Street Berlin, MD EUGENE PARKER OBITUARY Eugene Parker Jr. Parker's work focused on understanding the sun. Shortly afterward, in 1962, NASAs Mariner II spacecraft flew to Venus and encountered a constant stream of particles. A star tour from the inside out. Gene was very proud of his school record. There will be a memorial service at 11:00 AM Friday, May 20 at Renner Lutheran Church, 47474 258th Street, Renner, SD 57055. The surface of the sun is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. After retirement he worked for a small local communications company and then went on to work and retire from Sprint after 15 years. Obituaries. It will be my honor, Dr. Zurbuchen recalled. It may take up to 1 hour for your comment to appear on the website. His mom bought him a trumpet while they lived in Welborn. This site is provided as a service of SCI Shared Resources, LLC. And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. The Parker Solar Probe, named after Dr. Parker, being mated to a third-stage rocket motor in Titusville, Fla., in July 2018. His seminal ideas include the origin of magnetic fields, known as dynamo theory; rapid dissipation of magnetic fields; the structure of magnetized shock waves; and the diffusion of high-energy cosmic rays. New Jersey Residents: N.J. Lic. 5801 S. Ellis Ave., Suite 120, Chicago, IL 60637, Submit your images from UChicago research to 2023 Science as Art contest, John W. Rogers Jr. discusses the importance of socially responsible business practices, UChicago to partner on new Chan Zuckerberg Initiative biomedical research hub, Why Mourning Is Essential to Our Well-Being, with Jonathan Lear (Ep. Sign up for service and obituary updates. His last publication was entitled Exploring the innermost solar atmosphere (Nature Astronomy, 2020). He and his family moved to Southern California where he attended Inglewood high and became class President and captain of the Basketball team. He retired in 1995 but continued to publish articles and books. in physics from Michigan State University (1948), a Ph.D. in physics from the Caltech (1951), he was an instructor at the Department of Mathematics of the University of Utah (1951-1953), before moving to the University of Chicago (June 1955), promoted to professor (1962) in the Department of Physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute and the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics (1967). There are no events at this time. He graduated from Lafayette High School class of 1970. Parker was invited to attend a ceremony in Sweden next month to celebrate the Crafoord Prize, which he won in 2020. Over his career, Parker also went on to study cosmic rays and the magnetic fields of galaxies, among many other related topics. Eric Parker said he and his sister, Joyce, simply knew their dad was a scientist and didnt learn about his stature in the field until later in their lives. Parker initiated the use of the MHD approach to describe all such cosmical outflows phenomena. It is only fitting that Genes name is quite literally written in our star, the sun, and in the physics that describe stars.. Funeral service will be held 1:00 pm on Friday, February 3, 2023 at Miller Funeral Home - downtown, 507 S. Main Avenue, Sioux Falls, SD. East Wakefield, NH Gene Willis Parker passed away on October 10 th, 2021 while diving in Lake Winnipesaukee. His father was born in Elmira, New York and his birth name was Kenneth Miles Carey. Heliophysicist Eugene Parker as seen in 2019. 5260 Daniel J. Enea, Manager. The first theoretical framework of magnetic reconnection was established by Peter Sweet and Eugene Parker (1956). He was the first born of Eugene and Hazel Marie (Anderson) Parker. By the end of the 20th century, modern observations including those recently with the Hubble Space Telescope, have revealed that the Universe is replete with analogous outflows from all kinds of objects, ranging from the rich varieties of stars to the galaxies. We extend our gratitude to everyone who has reached out with memories, for his colleagues over the years who worked with him to explore a subject which gave him much joy, and for the many people at NASA and the Applied Physics Laboratory who welcomed my father and gave him a profound giftthe chance to see the launch of the Parker Solar Probe, which moved him deeply.. Dr. Fox arranged to send him preprints of papers that mission scientists were writing about the findings. Sign up for service and obituary updates. Dr. Parker would occasionally rise from the dinner table to jot down an idea, his son said. "His name is littered across astrophysics: the Parker instability, which describes magnetic fields in galaxies; the Parker equation, which describes particles moving through plasmas; the Sweet-Parker model of magnetic fields in plasmas; and the Parker limit on the flux of magnetic monopoles," the university wrote of Parker. In response to the reviewers negative comments, he appealed to the journals editor, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who was also an astrophysicist at the University of Chicago. Sympathy Ideas. Harry "Gene" Eugene Parker, 70, of Amazonia, Missouri, went to his heavenly home on Friday, September 30, 2022 at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, KS. He said, Absolutely. This program is not financed by or connected in any manner with any governmental agency or veteran's or other organization. Editor's note: The University will hold a memorial service for Eugene Parker on Oct. 8 in Bond Chapel. Parker was internationally known for proposing the concept of the solar windan idea that was first met with skepticism to outright ridicule. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Eugene Parker to pay them a last tribute. Keith Eugene Parker Obituary With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Keith Eugene Parker (High Point, North Carolina), born in Laurens, South Carolina, who passed away on November 10, 2022 at the age of 61. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.McGilley-Frye.com for the Parker family. Your entry has exceeded the maximum character limit. "I was honored to stand with him at the launch of Parker Solar Probe and have loved getting to share with him all the exciting science results, seeing his face light up with every new image and data plot I showed him. His was a life lived with dignity, resilient faith and strong Christian values, always on display. Help tell the story of your loved ones unique life. "Dr. Parker's legacy will live on, through the many active and future NASA missions that build upon his work. Words are poor to describe these two legendary scientists. Additional Legal Information Regarding Veterans Offerings, CloseAdditional Legal Information Regarding Veterans Offerings, Subscribe to the 12 Weeks of Peace E-Newsletter, Subscribe to the Thinking Ahead E-Newsletter, A Guide to Cremation and Burial for Veterans, Unique Ways to Memorialize Cremation Ashes, A Complete Guide for When A Loved One Passes, The Essential Veteran Death Benefits and Memorialization Guide, California Residents Goods and Services Info. Obituary Eugene C. Parker, age 86 of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, passed away Friday, January 6, 2023 at Good Samaritan Village in Sioux Falls. Thanks to the loyal support of generations of families, we've now grown to 45 locations nationwide with continued expansion in the future. Eugene Parker passed away 2015-10-04 in This is the full obituary story where you can express condolences and share memories. He retired from the school in 1995 but continued to publish books and articles. Parkers scientific contributions in 2018 by naming a spacecraft after him, the first time NASA had named a spacecraft after a living person. Eugene Gene Lawrence Parker, Jr. was born August 21, 1930 in Highland Park, Michigan. In addition to his children, survivors include his wife of 67 years, Niesje; a brother; three grandsons; and two great-grandchildren. Parker was born in 1927 in Houghton, Michigan, and completed an undergraduate degree in physics from Michigan State University in 1948 and a Ph.D. at the California Institute of Technology in 1951. If you know of an upcoming event for Eugene Parker, please add one. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and was a fellow of the American Physical Society and a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. My Career long attorney/agent & lifetime friend,hero,brother & confidant EUGENE PARKER has gone on to be with the Lord. The so-called Parker theorem (1972), deals with the topology of the lines of the magnetic force, and the non-equilibrium of non-invariant fields along some large scale direction. CANDLE HAS BEEN LIT CANDLES HAVE BEEN LIT, We are reviewing your submission. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Eugene Parker changed the way we see the sun. I had the privilege of completing my Ph.D. thesis under the supervision of Gene Parker (1977-1980), while my office was in between the offices of Parker and Chandrasekhar. Kenneth was raised by a family named Hawk and used that as his surname all his adult life. Space is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. "Eugene passed away on March 31, 2016 after a brief and heroic battle with cancer.". NASA had never before named a spacecraft after a living person. Authorize the publication of the original written obituary with the accompanying photo. Although high-energy cosmic rays originate from distant galaxies, the thinking was that their collisions close to Earth could reveal something about what fills the space between planets in the solar system. Agent Eugene Parker has died after a battle with kidney cancer. California Residents: California FD #1289, #1309, #1359, #2031 At first, almost no one believed his findings on gigantic eruptions from the sun. Gene was born May 8, 1952 to Betty June and Harry J. Parker of St. Joseph. Parker was internationally known for proposing the concept of the solar windan idea that was first met with skepticism to outright ridicule. Obituary. Your entry has exceeded the maximum character limit. Eugene Claire Parker was born January 8th, 1936 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Support at last came from a colleague of Parker's at the university, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who himself, decades later became the namesake of NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. He was also cherished by friends and relatives. When Dr. Zurbuchen joined NASA in 2016, the agency had been working for years on a mission called Solar Probe Plus, which was to swoop close to the sun repeatedly. Born November 19, 1935 he was the son of the late Norman Ernest Parker and Erwin, NC Ronald Eugene Parker, age 70 of Erwin died Tuesday, September 22, 2021 at Betsy Johnson Hospital in Dunn, NC. He authored four books: Interplanetary Dynamical Processes (1963), Cosmical Magnetic Fields: Their Origin and Their Activity (1979), Spontaneous Current Sheets in Magnetic Fields, with Applications to Stellar X-rays (1994), and Conversations on Electric and Magnetic Fields in the Cosmos (2007). A photo posted by Deion Sanders (@deionsanders) on Mar 31, 2016 at 9:56pm PDT. This is in accordance to Parkers saying: If you do something new or innovative, expect trouble. "Anyone who knew Dr. Parker, knew that he was a visionary," Nicola Fox, director of NASA's heliophysics division, said in the agency statement. Danny was born July 27, 1955 in Joplin, son of the late Ray L. Reynolds and Velma (Harper) Reynolds. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Send a note, share a story or upload a photo. Parker played college basketball at Purdue and the San Antonio Spurs selected him in the fifth round of the 1978 NBA draft. As such, in the State of Oregon Preneed Crematory Sales and Services are conducted under the trade name Neptune Cremation Service. He went where the equations led him, said Michael S. Turner, an astrophysicist at the Kavli Foundation in Los Angeles who was a longtime colleague of Dr. Parkers at Chicago. I will sincerely miss his excitement and love for Parker Solar Probe. That in turn led to solar physics. And one can never forget the encouragement he gave to everyone he interacted withhis own students and postdocs, and his colleagues. In 2017, a NASA mission to fly through the outer wisps of the suns atmosphere was renamed after Dr. Parker. The family loved to visit Yosemite and Lake Tahoe together. His passing indeed marks a great loss for us all.. Nevertheless, before that his conclusion was roundly criticized. He was the expert on magnetism in the universe and understood it better than anyone else.. Like Chandra, Gene was not only a great physicist but at the same time he remained humble and approachable: till today I recall that whenever I was anxiously knocking his door to report on my research results, Gene would willingly interrupt his work to chat with me. But his children most remembered him as an involved dad and an avid hiker, camper and craftsman who carved busts of famous figures from wood and made much of the familys furniture. He took school band lessons while at Welborn. Skip to content. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcomand onFacebook. Parker proposed (1987) that the solar corona might be heated by a myriad of tiny nanoflares, miniature brightenings resembling solar flares that would occur all over the surface of the Sun, a leading theory to explain the coronal heating problem. He was 94. CANDLE HAS BEEN LIT CANDLES HAVE BEEN LIT, We are reviewing your submission. He. Let others know about your loved one's death. Receive a notification when services are updated. His work did not rely on 20th-century physics breakthroughs like quantum mechanics or Albert Einsteins theory of general relativity, but rather on older physics like Maxwells equations, devised by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1860s to describe the behavior of electric and magnetic fields. None of the insurance products promoted at this sales event are endorsed by those organizations, all of which offer free advice to veterans about how to qualify and apply for benefits. During the COSPAR General Assembly in Athens (July 2022), Parker was leading the Scientific Organizing Committee of the session I organize: Exploring the cradle of the solar wind with Parker Solar Probe/Solar Orbiter/Proba-3: what do we really know about the inner solar corona? The idea was roundly criticized. EUGENE PARKER OBITUARY Oct. 18, 1957 - March 7, 2015 Mr. Parker was born in Jacksonville, Florida and was the son of the late Sylvia and Lt. Eugene H. Parker, Sr. But Dr. Zurbuchen, who had met Dr. Parker years earlier, said he did not have much trouble getting Robert Lightfoot, the acting administrator of NASA at the time, to approve the change in 2017. He always felt like workaholics were missing out, Eric Parker said. Born in. He was vindicated in 1962 when a NASA spacecraft mission to Venus confirmed his theory and solar winds effect on the solar system, including occasional disruptions of communications systems on Earth. No services are scheduled at this time. When they left Welborn the lessons stopped. Ohio Residents: Neptune Society is affiliated with Okerwall Funeral Home. He read them and he sent notes on them, she said. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Woodrow Eugene Edwards to pay them a last . His favorite advice was: when your math becomes complicated stop and think again about your physics. Would you like to offer Eugene Parkers loved ones a condolence message? He was just really, really excited about a mission that was really going to do all the science that he always wanted to do.. He had little patience for Its well known that Dr. Turner said. The solar wind, while continuous, can become violent when the sun throws out gigantic eruptions of particles known as coronal mass ejections. Eugene "Gene" Lawrence Parker, Jr. was born August 21, 1930 in Highland Park, Michigan. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.horisawardfairviewchapel.com for the Donald E. Parker, 80, of Fort Wayne, went to his heavenly home Sunday, December 4, 2022. Our image of the day, Your monthly guide to stargazing & space science, Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with code 'LOVE5', Issues delivered straight to your door or device. The first reviewer on the paper said, Well I would suggest that Parker go to the library and read up on the subject before he tries to write a paper about it, because this is utter nonsense, Parker told UChicago News in 2018. I'm Devastated!!!!! Call Call. He was loved and cherished by many people including : his parents, Eugene Rayne Parker and Louise Morris Parker Burbage; his aunt Eileen M Powell; his cousins, Mitchell Montalvo Parker (Nancy) and Gene; and also, Mitchell Rayne Parker and Olivia Calcutt Parker. He was born in Jackson, MI on July 31, 1937, to Loy and Goldie Parker. Robert Eugene PARKER, age 94, of El Paso, Texas passed away on Saturday, February 13, 2021. You can search by first or last name, state and publication date. Parker was always understated, said Dr. Zurbuchen, who was watching the liftoff near Dr. Parker that morning. Dr. Fox remembered when she met with Dr. Parker the first time after the launch of the probe. Thomas Eugene Parker, age 68, of Norman, Oklahoma passed away on Saturday, February 11, 2023. 3M followers View more on Instagram Like 4,247 likes deionsanders. These children were Joanne had a younger brother, Kenneth, who passed away in February of 1989. In 1955, Parker joined the University of Chicago, where he contributed to astrophysics for another 67 years, according to the university's statement (opens in new tab). In 2017, NASA announced that it was naming its landmark solar mission after Parker as a recognition of his contributions to the field of heliophysics. Prof. Family and friends are welcome to send flowers or leave their condolences on this memorial page and share them with the family. NASA honored E.N. Parker correctly predicted that the solar wind would create a large bubble around the sun, the heliosphere (1961). Eugene Parker on first year of namesake NASA mission: its pretty, NASA mission honors pioneering UChicago physicist.