Baron Parker, a former NHL linesman, was always 鈥渇irst to help.鈥� His days patrolling the bluelines and redlines and battles in the NHL were a testament to this, as he put his body on the line to get between some the the biggest and toughest warriors in the game鈥攅ven to the detriment of his own health.
The long-time Cloverdale resident died last month while away at his property in Washington State.
Charles Baron Parker was born March 5, 1967, in Vancouver, B.C. The son of Diane and Charles 鈥淐huck鈥� Sydney Parker, Baron was the youngest of four siblings, with his eldest sister Kymm helping to raise Baron and his older brothers Scott and Lance.
CLOVERDALE
The family moved to Cloverdale when Baron was in Grade 2. His grandparents owned some property around 32nd Avenue and he started going to East Kensington Elementary School. His parents separated shortly after that.
In the mid '70s, Baron's brother and sister worked at a diner in Cloverdale. Scott worked in the back and Kymm was a server. Baron used to make his way there after school and he鈥檇 sit in a booth and drink a pop and wait for them to finish their shifts. Mom Diane was off working two jobs just to try and make ends meet.
Times were hard, but the struggles they faced forged a bond between Kymm and her younger brothers. Adding to their struggles, Chuck was permanently disabled in a car accident when Baron was 12.
In those early years, Baron played hockey for the Cloverdale Colts. And in 1981, at the tender age of 14, he began officiating鈥攕omething that would take over his life, offer him some of his proudest moments, and take from him one of the things he loved the most.
In the intervening years between elementary and high school, Baron became a troubled youth. He went to Lord Tweedsmuir for a spell, but ended up at Earl Marriott.
"He had a tough go of it," remembered his wife Sandra. 鈥淗e was always getting in trouble at school.鈥�
Being an avid sportsman helped Baron turn his life around. He was a pretty good hockey player and the principal at Earl Marriott was a big hockey fan. So he took Baron under his wing, convinced he could help the young lad. And he did. Through the principal's mentorship, Baron went from being a straight F student to a straight A student.
The final shift in his transformation occurred when someone recommended Baron apply for a Rotary Club exchange program. The program was for kids that had gone through adversity. So Baron applied and then spent his Grade 12 year at a high school in Echuca, Australia, graduating there, and never looking back. He remained thankful to the Rotary Club and stayed connected to his "second family" in Australia for the rest of his life.
When Baron returned from Down Under, he realized he wasn鈥檛 going to make it anywhere in hockey as a player, so he concentrated on officiating full-time. Despite detractors who told him he would never achieve his dreams, he set his sights on the NHL.
NHL
Baron married Sandra Bailey in 1990 and even though it was just the two of them, he was becoming a family man. He kept working the lines in rinks around the Coast and Interior. He worked in the then BCJHL for six years and spent three years in the WHL, before being invited to an NHL camp. While reffing in the WHL, Baron also worked as an auxiliary for the Surrey RCMP.
鈥淚t was very rare to go from the WHL to the NHL,鈥� Sandra recalled. 鈥淯sually you had to go to the AHL or something like that."
After a short camp in Ontario in 1994, Baron was awarded a contract. But his dream would have to wait as the NHL owners locked the players out and the 鈥�94-鈥�95 season didn't end up starting until January (1995).
Baron was fine with it. At the time, he told the Surrey/North Delta Leader鈥檚 John W. Ireland, 鈥淚'm going okay. I've reached my dream and now it's put on hold for who knows how long.鈥� Baron ended up working 39 games that season with his first NHL game being between the Anaheim Ducks and the Dallas Stars.
He counted highlights in his first NHL season as skating on the same ice as Wayne Gretzky and working a game in the old Montreal Forum. He also remembered Dave Babych, Paul Kariya and 鈥渆specially Kelly Hrudey" as being consistently polite.
He was dedicated to his 鈥渄ream job.鈥� In 1999, when his daughter Sarah was born at 7 a.m., Baron was on the ice that night working an NHL game.
Baron was one of the officials who worked the very last NHL game at the Pacific Coliseum and the very first NHL game at Rogers Arena (then GM Place).
In one game he got knocked out by Kariya and had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher. Baron wasn't much of a bragger, but he was on the ice when Gretzky set one of his innumerable records and he used to say, "I got to hit Wayne Gretzky on the butt."
DREAM ENDS
Baron lost his dream job in 2003, when his contract wasn鈥檛 renewed by the NHL. He was a good official and had good reviews.
鈥淏ryan Lewis got let go and Andy Van Hellemond came in,鈥� Sandra said. 鈥淗e got rid of all the officials that Bryan Lewis loved. Just the politics of the game. And they were contract to contract. They weren't employees."
Baron tried to fight it with the Ontario Labour Board but nothing could be done. Sandra even wrote Gary Bettman a "scathing email," but it was to no avail.
When Baron's and Sandra鈥檚 first child, Brenden, was born 25 weeks premature, the family received phone calls from Bettman and his wife Shelli. "鈥橝nything we can do for you, let us know. Please call us,鈥�" remembered Sandra. "I thought, 'Oh this is lovely, kind and compassionate, I didn't know this about Mr. and Mrs. Bettman.'"
Fast forward to 2003 and Sandra reached out to the NHL commissioner. "You asked me once, If there was anything you could do for us, and I'm asking you now to see through this (crap) that's going down and fix this," Sandra recalled. "I got, probably, a generic letter back saying, 'we have to do what the officiating department asks of us. We don't have any say over them.鈥� And that was it.鈥�
Baron was crushed and Sandra was bitter. But they pivoted and moved on. Baron went on to do some part-time work driving for Canada Bread. He started taking care of the kids and Sandra went back to work full time as a CPA.
From there Baron went on to a job in sales with Canadian Freightways. Eventually he bought a railway hardware sales business and did that for the final 14 years of his life.
Back in 1995, as Baron鈥檚 budding NHL career began, Baron鈥檚 mother passed away from cancer at age 57. A couple months later, when Brenden was born, it solidified Baron as that family man. Brenden was born premature and was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. This engendered in Baron the notion of charity. Baron鈥檚 daughter Sarah said this came to him naturally.
鈥淗e was always the first person to stand up and offer to help out,鈥� Sarah said. 鈥淎nd he always wanted to be involved in the process from the beginning.鈥�
BRENDEN'S RIDE
Baron passed his notion of 鈥渇irst to help鈥� onto his son Brenden. When kids that were going to an Easter Seals camp in Squamish were faced with a $500 user fee (after it had previously been free), it was Brenden who asked his dad to help him raise funds so kids could still go to camp.
So, in 2014, Brenden and Baron started Brenden's Ride, a motorcycle-ride fundraiser that ended up raising more than $100,000 for charity over six straight years until its COVID-caused cessation.
鈥淚 said to my dad, 鈥業 would like to help them find a way to get to camp.鈥� So he said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 a great idea.鈥� So we decided on a motorcycle ride,鈥� recalled Brenden. 鈥淚t was my idea, but dad helped me with it.鈥�
Baron鈥檚 idea of giving extended to the homeless community too. During the winters, around his office in Clover Square Village, he would buy homeless people coffee and bagels. Sometimes he鈥檇 even take a homeless person out for dinner to give them a hot meal and to hear their story.
It always came naturally to Baron to want to give. He never questioned it. It was just who he was. When something needed to be done, he'd do it. He wouldn't ask permission nor would he ask for payment. He was just a man who helped out.
He had a property south of Bellingham called Whatcom Meadows. He called it his "happy place鈥� and 鈥渉eaven.鈥� He went down there on Feb. 6 to help once again, this time to get it ready for Sarah鈥檚 birthday weekend with her friends. While there, Baron suffered a heart attack and was taken to the hospital in Bellingham.
In his final act of charity, Baron donated his organs. "This was his last gift," Sandra said.
Baron passed away Feb. 8 at St Joseph's Hospital in Bellingham, Washington. He was 57.
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The family's holding a party for Baron they're calling "Baron's Last Call." For more info email baronslastcall@gmail.com.
The family is also asking, in lieu of flowers, that donations be made to the scholarship program run by the Cloverdale Rodeo Youth Initiative Fund. For more info on ways to donate, visit cloverdalerodeofoundation.com.
