60 Minutes Sports: "Harry"

Never heard of Harry Parker but this came up in my feed. Teared up a little bit at the end. This man had clearly touched many lives and left a indelible mark on Harvard's history. He deserves to be remembered.

Harry was ALWAYS very kind and humorous with me, even when he had every opportunity to be the opposite for my having "pushed his buttons" on occasion. He was a forgiving man, and would continue to allow me to use the rowing tanks at Harvard (now since removed) to teach new rowers, and was also OK with me helping (for no charge) the freshman crew coach in '94-'95 season. He helped me arrange the use of Radcliffe's Weld Boathouse for my marriage ceremony in August of 1995, making me the 1st person to have held a wedding ceremony there. He never held a grudge, was super humble, and will be forever missed by those whom he touched. BTW: the huge get-together after his memorial service, held beneath a huge tent along the Charles River adjacent to Weld Boathouse after his church memorial service was EPIC. Hundreds of rowers and his family and friends loudly celebrating the life of a man whom we all loved. RIP, Harry Parker.

It's impossible to convey the feeling of a well-rowed boat. It's almost magical. When it's bad, it's really bad, and frequently miserable. It's also one of the only sports where competition hurts worse than practice. And practice can hurt quite a lot. But we love it, in part, because even the best rowers never get it perfect.

Thank you for a wonderful tribute to a true legend...Old enough to remember HP as my Red Cross Lifesaving Instructor in 1961 at Hyde Bay Camp on Lake Otsego in NY.

Beautiful tribute. Really choked me up at the end.

Great coaches transform lives.

Thanks for bringing this back

There is nothing that compares to an eight where all are in sync and the prow whistles over the water! Greatest sport!

What an amazing story, god bless Harry. Just saw this on youtube, didn't know this man but I cried watching this story.

Unbelievable! ❤️