David Niles Parker

KENT — David Niles Parker, 88, of Middletown, Connecticut, passed away at home on May 6, 2026.

Born January 20, 1938, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the first child to Franklin and Katharine Niles Parker, David graduated from Wellesley High School, received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University, studied at the University of Chicago Divinity School, and earned his master’s in education from Harvard.

David met his future wife, Borngy Hammer, at a college mixer, and in 1962 they married at her family home in South Kent. Together they raised four children and were married nearly 64 years.

He taught English in the Boston public schools, and at the New Milford, Connecticut High School, and took on extra work as a stringer for the Waterbury Republican, covering Kent and Gaylordsville, thereby launching his lifelong career in journalism. In 1968 he took on the job of running a small-town paper, The Millbrook Round Table in Millbrook, New York, where he worked as a reporter, managing editor, photographer, circulation manager and ad sales representative and everything in between. He went on to work at the Lakeville Journal, the Waterbury Republican, the Litchfield County Times, the Torrington Register-Citizen, and the Kent Good Times Dispatch. He also taught journalism courses at UConn, Torrington and took on diverse freelance writing projects, including articles for the New York Times, and a biography of Revolutionary War figure, Dr. Thomas Young. During the Vietnam War he participated in peaceful protests with his fellow Teachers Against War.

Never one to speak of himself, his family would find out by other means of his many talents, awards, and accomplishments. He did not belong to a religion, and considered himself an agnostic, but was a most fine example of a moral, ethical, honest, humble, kind, and good human being; he truly treated every person he ever met with kindness and respect.
He was a great lover of poetry, including that of Richard Wilbur, William Yeatts, Dylan Thomas and Carl Sandburg. He was especially fond of reading aloud poems by A. E. Housman. Literature was such an integral part of his life, and he would often explain himself by quoting a passage or referencing a literary character.

He had a lifelong love of singing and enjoyed doing so for children when they were young. He was especially fond of folk and classical music. In his later years one of his pleasures was to remember and share songs he had learned many decades earlier. When his children were young—and not so-young, each night he would let his children choose the songs he’d sing them, many songs he learned from his father (which his children went on to sing to their children, and their children to sing to his great-grandchildren.)

He also sang in various choirs, including the Kent Singers of which he was a proud and a beloved member.

For eighty-seven years, he spent every summer at his beloved family’s cottage in West Falmouth, Massachusetts. Many summer mornings were spent reading the paper at West Falmouth Market, followed by swimming at Chapoquoit Beach. There he spent many evenings sitting on the porch, singing and looking out onto West Falmouth Harbor.
He was also known to many as an avid sports fan, closely following the Boston Red Sox and UConn Women’s Basketball, a passion that he closely shared with his daughter, Caitlin.

Family was very important and dear to him, and he is remembered fondly and in high regard by family, both close and extended.

David is survived by his wife Borgny of Middletown, his children Stephen of Brattleboro, Vermont; Rolf also of Brattleboro, Vermont; Abigail of Kent, Connecticut; and Caitlin of Durham, Connecticut; grandchildren Julia Holly of Portland, Oregon; Madeleine Holly of Salem, Connecticut; Lily DiTota of Falmouth, Massachusetts; Emma Bournival of Watertown, Connecticut; Allison Mullins of New Haven, Connecticut; Finn Bournival of Durham, Connecticut; and Morgen Parker-Houghton of Brattleboro, Vermont; and great grandchildren Klaus and Grant Schubel of Salem, Connecticut; siblings Anne Schmalz of Bedford, Massachusetts; Theodore Parker of Wellesley, Massachusetts; John Parker of Yarmouth, Massachusetts; as well as many nieces, nephews and family friends.

Services include a private burial at Bulls Bridge Cemetery, at 1 p.m. on May 31, which will be followed by a Celebration of Life at the Kent Community House at 2 p.m.