Title
Subject
Description
Parker served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1970-1974 and set his sights on the House Transportation Committee. He was a Tuscaloosa community leader as well. He was a member of the Warrior-Tombigbee Development Association and of the FOCUS on Senior Citizens board, as well as a Mason and a Shrine Club president. He passed away in 1992.
The text of the sign at the Parker Towing facility in Northport:
Parker Towing Company
Founded 1940
Parker Towing Company founder, Captain Tim Parker (1904-1992) began his riverboat career on the Black Warrior-Tombigbee River in 1933 as a deckhand on a steam powered paddlewheel boat carrying cotton to Mobile and New Orleans. Working his way up to pilot, he received his U.S. Coast Guard License in 1936. Captain Parker saved his money, purchased an old steam powered paddlewheel boat, the Heloise, and founded Parker Towing Company in Tuscaloosa in 1940.
After their marriage in 1942 his wife, Thelma Ford Parker, kept the company’s books on the dining room table, while Captain Parker worked the river. In 1946 Captain Parker built his first diesel powered propeller driven boat, the M/V R.G. Parker (named in honor of his father, Rhett Goode Parker), and Parker Towing Company entered the modern era of marine propulsion.
In the 1950s Parker Towing Company moved to offices on the banks of the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where they were located until moving to Northport in May, 2004.
Erected July 2005