Dr. L. Craig Parker

1937 - 2020

Parker, Dr. L. Craig
Dr. L. Craig Parker, psychologist and professor emeritus at the Henry C. Lee College of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences at the University of New Haven, died peacefully at home on December 31, 2019 at age 82. Craig was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1937, the son of Virginia (Moulton) and Lawrence Craig Parker. He grew up in Branford, CT, and graduated from Hopkins Grammar School in 1955 and Bates College in 1960, where he was the Captain of the Tennis Team at both schools, and remained an avid tennis player throughout his life. He received his Ph.D. at SUNY-Buffalo and had taught at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Alberta before starting the Criminal Justice Program at UNH in 1972. Known internationally as a criminal justice scholar, he had studied in a variety of countries including Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, Denmark,The Netherlands, China and Japan. Dr. Parker received Fulbright Research Scholarships in both Japan and Finland. He had been a Visiting Scholar at Columbia Law School and a Visiting Faculty Fellow at Yale University. He was the author of five textbooks and numerous articles and had led student groups to London field studies. An important contribution was his initiation of exchange programs among American, Chinese, and Japanese scholars in the field starting in the 1980's when such collaboration was rare. Dr. Parker was predeceased by his wife and companion of many years, Christine (Trawczynski) Parker. He is survived by his daughter, Jennifer (Parker) Frost, her husband, Rob Frost, and two grandchildren, Daniel and Margaret Frost, all of Hanover NH; a sister Judith (Parker) Cole of Lexington, MA; nephews Alex Cole and family of Chelmsford, MA, and Stephen Cole and family of Medfield, MA; and Christine Parker's grandson, Steven Gray, of Madison, CT. A private family celebration of Craig's life will be held in the spring. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Craig's name to the Virginia M. Parker Endowed Scholarship at the University of New Haven, c/o Office of Advancement, 300 Boston Post Road, West Haven, CT 06516, or to Scranton Memorial Library, 1250 Durham Road, Madison, CT 06443, where he had been a resident for 48 years.