Henry Randall Parker of New Boston passed away suddenly on December 4th. Known to all as Randy, he was a founding incorporator of the Piscataquog Watershed Association, which later became the Piscataquog Land Conservancy.

Randy and his wife Gail arrived in New Boston in 1963 when they moved into a former grist mill on the Piscataquog River in the center of town. As population growth and development in southern New Hampshire accelerated in the late 1960’s, Randy became an early leader in local land conservation, serving on New Boston’s first volunteer conservation committee. When in 1969 the Boston & Maine Railroad announced its plan to sell a strip of land along the Piscataquog River from the Goffstown line to the center of New Boston, Randy and a small group of like-minded citizens co-founded the Piscataquog Watershed Association. The PWA eventually purchased the land for roughly $25,000 and later transferred the property to the town to become what is today the New Boston Rail Trail. Randy and Gail Parker continued to volunteer for the PWA/PLC in myriad ways over the decades, including service for many years on the organization’s boards of trustees. Their property on the Piscataquog has also been the site of PLC’s Lobster by the River event for more than a decade. Randy Parker leaves a truly remarkable conservation legacy and will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him.