Henry Ellsworth Parker, 90, the former state treasurer of Connecticut and New Haven mayoral candidate, died on September 29, 2018 in New Haven County. Parker was elected state treasurer in 1974, on the Democratic ticket that saw Ella T. Grasso gain office as the state's first female governor. As Connecticut treasurer, Parker was sole fiduciary of the state's $3.8 billion pension fund, and served as Bond Commissioner, Bank Commissioner and a member of the Financial Advisory Board. His charismatic personality, grace, eloquence and sartorial elegance quickly became a hallmark of his visionary leadership and expanding national influence in the financial services arena. Among his many achievements as treasurer was the creation of Yankee Mac, a $450 million home mortgage program helping the urban centers, and his chairmanship of the Governor's Task Force on South Africa, a body that produced for Connecticut model anti-apartheid legislation, the first in the nation. He counted as his greatest achievement his 1977 chairmanship of the State Citizen's Committee that resulted in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday becoming a state holiday seven years before it became a national holiday. Governor Grasso signed it into law in 1976. In 1986, Hank joined Atalanta Sosnoff Capital Corporation in New York. He retired from the financial services industry in 1997. Hank was an avid golfer and enjoyed playing with his friends in Connecticut during the summer, spring, and fall and enjoyed the Palm Coast in the winter.

His parents, son, Curtis Hasan; three sisters, Thelma Parker Wiley, Bettye Parker Ford, Florence Parker Monroe, and brother, Jerome Parker, precede him in death. In addition to his wife of fifty-nine years, and his daughter, he leaves to mourn a sister, his grandson, a great grandson and mother, nephew, and nieces. He is also mourned by the Johnson family of Poughkeepsie, NY; and a host of friends.

Full obituary published in The Hartford Courant on Oct. 2, 2018