Tony Parker, British oral historian, died this day aged73. Tony Parker (25 June 1923 – 3 October 1996) was an oral historian.
On this day, Denis Frank Owen, British ecologist and natural historian and Thomas Rees, British botanist, died
Born in Stockport, Cheshire, Parker was a conscientious objector during the Second World War and was directed to work in a coal mine.
**"Read More" BELOW for the complete story**
Tony Parker (25 June 1923 – 3 October 1996) was an oral historian whose work was dedicated to giving a voice to British and American society's most marginalised figures, from single mothers to lighthouse keepers to criminals, including murderers.
He moved to London and worked as a publisher's representative at Odhams Press. He campaigned against capital punishment and became very interested in prisons and their occupants, eventually focussing on the experiences of prisoners after release.
Tony Parker died in Westleton, Suffolk, having just completed his study of his American counterpart Studs Terkel.
His books comprise lengthy interviews with his various subjects. He does not include his questions. He attempts to record his subjects "without comment or judgement". He began by specialising in studies of convicted criminals in Britain.
His later books took a wider range of subjects: a poor housing estate, a small town in America, post-Communist Russia and the lives of lighthouse-keepers.
Anthony Storr described him in 1970 as "Britain's most expert interviewer, mouthpiece of the inarticulate and counsel for the defence of those whom society has shunned and abandoned"
The Thunderdome stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida was officially renamed Tropicana Field, marking a significant branding change for the venue.
This stadium, home to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now Tampa Bay Rays) baseball team, would become a key landmark in the city's sports infrastructure
Denis Frank Owen, British ecologist and natural historian, dies at 65,
Thomas Rees, British botanist, dies in a cycling accident at 65