By CASEY NEILL
A DANDENONG businessman is honouring his late son’s memory by educating the poorest children in the Himalayas.
Bruce Parker, a former commando who has run HM GEM Engines in Dandenong for 25 years, last week released Spirit High: The Mick Parker Story.
Proceeds from the mountain climber’s biography will go to the new Michael Parker Foundation.
“It’s about providing education for disadvantaged children, particularly in remote areas of Nepal and northern Pakistan and also Australia,” Bruce said.
“On many occasions Michael gave away all of the money he had on him.
“It’s a continuation of what his life’s work would have been about.”
Michael scaled the world’s highest mountains without bottled oxygen, guides or Sherpas.
He climbed nine of the world’s 14 peaks that are higher than 8000 metres – three of them twice.
He died on 21 May in 2009 at age 36, shortly after reaching the summit of Makalu in the Himalayas.
Bruce said he was climbing with the United Kingdom’s top mountaineer, Roland Hunter, and had a virus.
“He passed out several times on the way into the mountain,” he said.
“The weather was abhorrent and the remainder of the expedition decided to abandon the expedition but Michael and Roland decided to stay on for one more crack at the summit.
“They had a very small window of opportunity so they pushed themselves very hard.
“They were successful.“
They completed the five to seven-day descent in just two and a half.
“Michael passed out several times during that walkout,” he said.
They flew back to Kathmandu and celebrated at Sam’s Bar, where the owner tried to get a meal into him because “he looked absolutely terrible”.
“At about 1.30am he left the bar,” Bruce said.
“His time of death was recorded as being 2am.
“He died in his sleep.”
Receiving the news was “probably the most difficult thing that I’ve ever experienced”.
“The consolation – if there is a consolation – is that he died doing what he loved doing,” Bruce said.
“He said to his mother and I on a number of occasions that he was never, ever happier than when he was on a big mountain.”
He said that unlike many other climbers, Michael had a lot of time for the locals.
“Nepal’s probably one of the poorest countries in the world and he knew that education or lack of was the common denominator,” he said.
“In those remote areas there are very few schools and in villages where there are no schools.
“Basic education is carried out by the older people in the village and usually consists of a pointed stick with lessons scratched in the dirt.
“He would use his own money to take those materials into some places when he went climbing.
“He could see how they were received and he felt it made a big difference.
“His intention was to do it on a bigger scale.”
The Edmund Hillary Foundation already works with Nepalese schools.
“But the areas where the schools are, are not remote areas,” Bruce said.
So the Michael Parker Foundation is working in conjunction with World Expeditions Foundation, which provides volunteers to supervise and help locals to build schools.
The foundation will also support the Commando Welfare Trust, which Bruce and ex-commanding officer Graham Ferguson started in 2010 in the wake of a black hawk helicopter crash in Afghanistan.
“A number of our commandos were killed and some seriously injured,” he said.
“These soldiers’ dependents would be in a position where they would struggle as far as education is concerned.
“We fill the gap where department of veteran’s affairs, or DVA, and Legacy don’t go.
“They don’t pay school fees, for example. They might in certain circumstances stretch for a school uniform.
“We provide the very best education for the kids because that’s what their dads could have done.”
Visit michaelparkerfoundation.org.au to donate.
