Jan. 21--Steve Parker, blind since infancy, spent his life mastering techniques that helped him navigate life, including a successful career as a systems analyst at Northern Trust.
"He was very intelligent and could quickly catch on to things," said Terry Saurman, a friend of Parker's who is also blind. "That's why he was often used as a person to be a beta tester for specific types of technology that were developed."
Parker, 59, died Dec. 25 of complications from metastatic bladder cancer at JourneyCare Hospice in Barrington, according to his wife, Holly. He had lived in Lake Zurich.
Parker was born in Lake Forest on Dec. 26, 1955, to Jack Parker, an Episcopalian minister, and his wife Marian, a teacher. Diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a cancer of the eyes, at 6 months old, Parker had both eyes removed in infancy.
"His parents were told by their pediatrician to raise him like any other child, which is what they did," Parker's wife said.
Because of his disability, Parker was denied access to the elementary and middle schools in Deerfield, where his family lived, so he was bused to a school in Wheeling that had a program for the blind.
By the time Parker was in high school, legislative changes required that public schools offer education to students with disabilities in their local communities, according to "Hope for Parents of Blind Children," a book written by Parker's father. Parker enrolled at Deerfield High School, graduating in 1974.
Parker graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he met Holly Thiede, whom he would marry in 1984. He majored in Spanish and spent a year studying abroad in Barcelona.
On his own in Barcelona, Parker tapped his considerable spatial memory to quickly internalize the city's geography and the bus routes that would help him to get around.
"He had a very good sense of direction," said Parker's brother John, noting that his capabilities in "orientation and mobility" would put him among the top ranks of sighted people.
Also, "he had a phenomenal memory," said his other brother, Ken. "If he was in a place once, he would remember it."
Throughout his life, Parker sought out opportunities to learn new technologies designed to help blind people function independently.
In the late 1970s, Parker was given an opportunity to use an experimental device called a stereotoner, which translated printed letters into a series of sounds. The device worked for him partly because of his many years of training in music.
"He was one of the only people who could use those things," his wife said.
When refreshable Braille machines, which reproduce text from a computer in Braille using dynamic 6-pin cells, became available in 1979, Parker was able to interface with a computer in ways that hadn't previously been possible.
"That was a very modern technology at the time," said Mike Busboom, a friend of Parker's since college who is also blind. "It was slow as molasses, but for once in our lives, we didn't have to worry about, for example, the phone ringing and not knowing where we left off" while typing a research paper.
Parker "was insightful, and he sort of had a view toward the future," Busboom said. "He said, 'Mike, this is going to change our lives,' and it did."
Parker's aptitude with the refreshable Braille machine helped him to get a job as a programmer at Northern Trust in 1981, his wife said. He remained at Northern Trust for the rest of his career, becoming a senior systems analyst and vice president.
"He was very good at what he did," said Chung Park, the IT manager at Northern Trust who was Parker's boss for several years until Parker retired in 2010. "He had to recall everything, unlike the rest of us, who could take notes."
"He was able to recall and give very detailed information," Park said. "And this is programming -- we're talking about lines of code, not a fact of some story."
In part because he was able to lead such a normal life despite being blind, Parker was a leader among blind friends. "By living a life that was so exemplary, he was very inspiring to people with a similar disability," Busboom said.
He is survived by his wife and two brothers.
Services were held.
Dole is a freelance reporter.
