Harry Parker has coached men’s crew at Harvard for nearly twice the length of any of his rowers’ lives.

“We call him ‘the father of rowing’,” Harvard captain Mike Skey said. “He’s just been around.”

Both his longevity and his success have established Parker as an institution in the world of Harvard crew.

In his 40 years, Parker’s teams have recorded 15 undefeated seasons and captured 17 EARC Sprints titles. His crews have won six national championships, while prevailing six times in the Cincinnati Regatta, an event long considered to be an unofficial national championship in its own right.

In international competition, Parker’s Crimson squads have excelled, placing first in the 1967 Pan American games, second in that year’s European Championships and sixth at the Mexico City Olympics the following year.

And in his years as coach, Parker’s squads have beaten their Yale counterparts in dual regattas a total of 33 times—including 18 straight victories from 1963-1980. Only on six occasions have his squads fallen to the boys from New Haven.

“There have been far too many outstanding moments for me to pick just one,” Parker said.

His achievements as a coach have made him a legend both at Harvard and in the rowing world at large. However, his first achievements came not from the sidelines, but on the water itself.

“I love competing,” Parker said. “I respond to competitive situations.”

Parker rowed during his undergraduate years at Penn, where he began a lifelong pattern of success in national and global competition.

Racing in the single scull, Parker won back-to-back national championships in 1959 and 1960, as well as at the Pan Am games in ’59. He captured fifth place at the Olympics in Rome the following year.

Parker’s talent, individual success and coaching accomplishments have earned him the unwavering trust of his rowers.

“He’s pretty much revolutionized the sport of rowing,” Skey said. “When we look at him, whatever he says goes. There’s no second-guessing.”

In the same way that Ted Williams evolved over the decades into the ultimate authority on the science of hitting, so too has Parker become the premier expert on the art of rowing. When he speaks of technique, all stop to listen.

“I think that I have a good grasp of what sound rowing is and I work very hard to teach that with varying degrees of success,” Parker said. “But nonetheless, I work very hard to get people to row well.”