Parker in running for state appeals court
By Matt Shaw
Published in News on October 13, 2004 1:59 PM
Bill Parker, a former Goldsboro resident, is making a run this fall for the N.C. Court of Appeals.
Parker is challenging Linda McGee of Hickory, a sitting judge, for her seat. The race is nonpartisan, but Parker has been endorsed by the N.C. Republican Party.
Parker has great memories of Goldsboro, he said Tuesday during a campaign swing. He lived here from 1975 to 1980 while stationed at Seymour Johnson, and his daughter, Meredith, was born here.
"This area is the reason we moved back to North Carolina" after Parker left the Air Force, he said. "We had such great memories of North Carolinians."
Parker is now a partner in a Raleigh law firm and making his first run for office.
If elected, he would be a strong advocate of judicial restraint, traditional family values, Second Amendment rights and the sanctity of human life, he said.
He would fight against the trend toward "judicial activism," he said. Judges are too often substituting their own agendas for laws passed by Congress or state legislatures.
Parker said that as judge, he would primarily carry out the law and uphold the Constitution.
"I firmly intend to support laws made by both Democrats and Republicans," he said.
Parker was born in 1949 in Little Rock, Ark. After graduating from Los Fresnos High School in Texas in 1967, he attended the Colegio San Ignacio in Chile and earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Texas-Pan American in 1971. He taught bilingual education in Texas for three years before joining the U.S. Air Force in 1974.
He retired in 1994, having achieved the status of master navigator with more than 3,600 flight hours, and received four Meritorious Service Medals, two Air Force Commendation Medals, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, and the Combat Readiness Medal.
He then enrolled at Regent University School of Law, graduating in 1997. He is now a partner in the law firm of Parker, Hauser & Cabaniss in Raleigh.
He and his wife, Nancy, have been married for 35 years.
They have two sons, William E. Parker IV and Andrew Parker, both of whom are in the Air Force; a daughter, Meredith, a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill; and two grandchildren.
For more information, go to www.electbillparker.com.