Funeral services have been set for Alan Parker, one the horse industry’s most well-known auctioneers, who died on Saturday, March 25 in Plant City, Florida.

Friends will be received from 5 to 8 p.m., Saturday, April 1, and from 2 to 4 p.m., Sunday, April 2, at the Gentry Morrison Funeral Home, 3350 Mall Hill Drive, Lakeland, Florida.

According to his son, Hank, Mr. Parker was hospitalized on Friday, March 17 for treatment of a kidney stone and was released on Sunday, March 19. After suffering difficulty breathing on Monday, March 20, he returned to the hospital where he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

Nelson Otero, of St Petersburg, Florida, was just 19 years old when he met Mr. Parker in 1989.

“I had traded a riding lawn mower for a Boston Mac bred mare that I then took to one of Alan’s auctions,” he recalled. “Alan befriended me and I ended up working with him for over 25 years and never took a paycheck. We were always partners on horses and I worked the sales.”

Otero said Mr. Parker was associated with all the important horse sales in the stock horse industry, including the Tom Powers Yearling Stakes Sale and the Reichert Celebration Yearling Sale and he owes everything to his mentor.

“He took a kid from Florida to the pinnacle of the horse auction business,” he said.

When Otero went to the hospital to visit his friend this week he said he got to say his goodbyes.

“I told him ‘I owe everything to you,” Otero shared. “Alan said: ‘You owe me nothing. It was you the whole time.”

Sadly, Mr. Parker’s other son, Jacob was to be married on Saturday to Jessica Switzer, at Mr. Parker’s home in Plant City, and Mr. Parker insisted the wedding go on as planned.

Otero was there for the nuptials.

“Hank made a great speech to start the reception,” Otero said. “He told the guests: “Today is about Jake and his celebration and tomorrow will be about Alan’s legacy.”

A third-generation auctioneer, Mr. Parker grew up in the Tampa area. He attended Chamberlain High School and studied General Business at the University of South Florida before starting his career in the 1950s.

The Alan Parker Auction Company was established in 1968 with the acquisition of a small defunct livestock auction barn. Over the next 50 years his company held more than 5,000 auctions (from church bake sales to antique automobiles and million dollar equines.) realizing over $1 billion in sales.

He is perhaps best known, however, for his 25-year affiliation with the All-American Quarter Horse Congress Super Sale. He worked for 15 years at the National Reining Horse Futurity Sale, 15 years at the Breeders Classic Sale, 23 years at the Tattersalls Quarter Horse Sales, 10 years at the National Paso Fino Sale, The Paint Horse Congress, the Pinto World Sale, The Houston Livestock Show, The Fort Worth Stock Show Sales, The National Cutting Horse Sales, The Appaloosa World and National Sales, The National Reining Horse Derby Sale, and production sales for many of America’s top breeders.

Alan Parker ran the Yearling Stakes Sale for the Tom Powers Futurity in Berrien Springs, Michigan since its inception.

Alan was a man that I could send to Florida with almost a million dollars of sale money, some of which was mine, and not hear from him for two months and never give it a thought,” said Tom Powers. “In the horse auction business, integrity is very much appreciated because there is opportunity for mischief.”

Powers said that while Mr. Parker was well known for his talents in an auction block, his real love was for his cattle and his ranch.

Tom Powers with Alan Parker

“He invited (my wife) Dominique and I down to ride with him to check cattle. He rode with us all day with his dogs and his whip,” Powers recalled. “He loaded his dogs in the trailer with two bulls. Never a question, never a comment. Both the bulls and the dogs unloaded without incident. He showed us where there were wild hogs. We found calves with their babysitter cows laying in the grass almost completely hidden near the palmetto hammocks. We saw snakes in the tanks and alligators.”

All this was very new to Tom and Dominique but Alan explained it in a patient, calm voice.

“He loved the history and the tradition of the Florida cattle ranches,” Tom said. “He carried his whip like an extension to his arm. He cracked that whip to move a cow or a bunch. He was a true cracker in the best sense of the word. We miss him already.”

A highlight of Mr. Parker’s career was presiding over the sale of the highest priced Quarter Horse Stallion (Invitation Only) ever offered at auction at $2.35 million at David James’ Dispersal Sale at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City in 2005, while working for National Equine Sales Inc.

Shane Watson, who owns and operates Equine Auction Exchange, met Mr. Parker in 2000 when he got his own auctioneer’s license through Tim Folk.

“Alan had ‘cowboy morals,’” Watson said today. “I’m really thankful that he made me part of his team.”

As long-time breeders and competitors, the Parker family raised, owned, showed or raced over 75 World Champion horses in Western Pleasure, Reining, Cutting, Halter and Racing. The family also raised a session topping horse at the 2007 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

A member of the National Auctioneers Association, Alan Parker and his family are members of the Hillsborough United Methodist Church in Tampa.