Tacoma’s youngest mayor and the man who put the T-Dome where it is has died
Mike Parker, Tacoma’s youngest mayor when he took office at the age of 30, has died. He was 72.
Parker died Oct. 26 from natural causes at a family home, his daughter Sarah Cain told The News Tribune on Thursday.
Parker served as mayor from 1978 to 1982 and was instrumental in siting the Tacoma Dome.
Micheal Leigh Parker, Sr. was born May 23, 1947 in Renton but was a lifelong resident of Pierce County, Cain said. Parker’s father worked for the Federal Aviation Administration. His mother built aircraft during World War II.
Parker, his family said, took an interest in politics at an early age.
At age 26, he was elected to the State House of Representatives as a Democrat and took office as the youngest legislator in state history.
“He was flamboyant, controversial and there were no shades of gray with Mike,” said former Tacoma mayor Bill Baarsma and Parker’s former professor at the University of Puget Sound.
“I feel like my dad understood people, and he understood politics,” Cain said.
Parker knew people wanted to get their own way in politics, and he used that trait to his advantage, she said.
“He was definitely a bridge builder,” she said. Parker once told her that “deals were never made on the floor but behind closed doors with brandy and cigars.”
In 1976, he ran for U.S. Congress but lost to Norm Dicks in the primary.
“He was definitely a viable candidate and a threat to Norm in ‘76,” Baarsma said. “He raised enormous amounts of money and had huge yard signs.”
In 1977, Parker announced his run for Tacoma mayor. He was elected Nov. 8, defeating state Sen. Lorraine Wojahn.
At Parker’s first City Council meeting he declined to vote on agenda items — a trend he intended to maintain, he said. He vowed only to participate on “close” votes.
By the end of January 1978, he yielded to political pressure and began voting on council business, according to News Tribune stories.
Parker was a visionary, Cain said.
Parker pitched the idea of holding a world’s fair in Tacoma. He considered annexing Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base. Those ideas never got off the ground.
“It was so audacious and so out of the blue,” Baarsma said of the world’s fair plan. “I think that set the stage for a dome, and I give him credit for that.”
In May 1978, voters weighed in on the Parker-backed plan to build a multipurpose minidome. Parker called it the “most significant issue placed before voters of Tacoma in this generation,” according to News Tribune stories. Voters approved what would soon be known as the Tacoma Dome.
Cain said it was what an ailing Tacoma needed at the time.
“The city needed something to get behind as opposed to tearing them apart,” Cain said.
Despite considerable political and public opposition, Parker was instrumental in putting the Tacoma Dome where it sits now, in the former Hawthorne District, according to News Tribune stories. He considered downtown Tacoma run-down, crime-ridden and lacking of parking.
Parker also urged the Tacoma Police Department to buy radar gun-equipped motorcycles. Police resisted at first, saying motorcycles were not as safe as patrol cars and it rained too much in Tacoma, according to News Tribune stories.
Today, the Tacoma Police Department has six motorcycle officers. That’s down from its height of 37 when 2012 budget cuts slashed the fleet, according to police spokeswoman Loretta Cool.
Parker started the Pierce County Prayer Breakfast in 1979, first called the Tacoma Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast.
In 1979, Parker said he made it clear to the project designer of Interstate 705 that he didn’t want a concrete barrier through Tacoma like Seattle’s Alaska Way Viaduct, according to News Tribune stories.
In 1980, he successfully lobbied the state Department of Transportation to include Tacoma on its mileage signs and convinced the Port of Seattle to include Tacoma in its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport signage.
After losing to Booth Gardner in the race to become the first Pierce County executive, Parker left politics and went to work in the broadcast industry.
Along with Cain, Parker is survived by his wife Maria, children Micheal Jr., Jeffrey, David, Dianna and Sara and seven grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at the University of Puget Sound’s Kilworth Memorial Chapel at 2 p.m., Dec. 15.
