Feb. 1 through Feb. 29 is Black History Month. Throughout the month we’ll introduce you to a person who made a difference in a way that you might not know about.

Occupation & age: Educator. Coach for Hanford High School sport teams. He was 72 when he died.

Family: He was married to his wife Annie, a retired nurse, for 42 years until his death in 2000. He has six children, Walter Jr., Darryl, Mel, Toni, Tom and Tanya; 10 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Why you should know of him? Eight years after his death, Walt Parker's name still resonates in Hanford. His family says there is not a day that goes by without meeting someone who shares fond memories of him.

"No matter where I go, there's always somebody who tells me, 'Your dad was a great man.' When we were growing up, we were known as Mr. Parker's sons," Mel Parker, Walt's third son, quips with his brother Walt Jr. about their father. "He touched a lot of people's lives."

Walt Parker was a high school math teacher. He was a renowned girls' basketball coach. Above all, he was a low-key yet effective community advocate who made indelible marks on people's lives with his generosity, according to those who knew him.

"He was a very giving person. He was a very religious man. He didn't have to tell you. You just knew he was by the way he carried himself," said Mel Parker, who follows in his father's footsteps today as a substitute teacher in Corcoran and a Hanford West basketball coach.

"He was our role model. We didn't have to look to sports figures."

Walt Parker was born and raised in Suffolk, Va., the youngest of four children. He attended North Carolina A&T State University. The school's Sportsman of the Year was drafted into the St. Louis Cardinals organization as an infielder, playing third and first base. But injuries ended his brief professional career.

He later served in the Air Force for seven years. Then he earned his master's degree in mathematics at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.

Parker returned to his Virginia hometown and taught for 12 years. It was his college friendship that made him decide to move his family all the way across the country to Hanford in 1969.

When the Parkers moved here, they became the first African-American family to live north of Highway 198.

In Hanford, he taught math at high school as well as at Chapman College. He coached most sports teams, including basketball and cross country.

"He had an opportunity to teach college, but he always wanted to work with young kids," Mel said.

Walt Jr. added, "He felt like kids needed to learn the right way."

An active member of the Second Baptist Church, Parker was always willing to help others and treated his students like his own children, said his wife, Annie Parker.

"He'd just help anybody. No questions asked," she said.

His sons say their father -- a "truly color-blind man" -- gave a lot to the community. But he always kept himself out of the limelight.

Walt was known as a low-key individual.

"He gave a lot to the community. I think he broke a lot of color barriers," Walt Jr. said.

Mel added, "He didn't really like accolades. He wanted to be a person in the background. He said he could get more things done that way."

Today, Parker's legacy lives on at Hanford's John F. Kennedy Junior High School, where the field is named after him.

Parker's influence transcended generations, his family says.

"We couldn't have asked for a better father, and mother," Walt Jr. said.

"He was my idol," Mel Parker said. "I think his influence even went down to my two sons. He was my kids' idol, too."

What are some of his achievements?: He coached the Hanford High School girls' basketball team to the Central Section title in 1987. He organized a fundraising that helped the cash-strapped local National Junior Basketball League in Hanford in the early 1980s.

Organizations in which he was involved: Second Baptist Church, in which he was active; past member of the Kings County Housing Authority; and the Hanford City Parks and Recreation Commission.

(Feb. 25, 2008)