Donald Parker made his homes all over the West Coast, but 27 years spent in Sunnyvale garnered him a good number of friends—and cemented his loves of photography and travel. Though he and wife Naomi retired to Arizona in 1986, their trusty motorhome took them through the Bay Area and back multiple times.

It was at home, in Cottonwood, Ariz., where Parker died at the age of 83 on Nov. 9. Services were held in the town of Hood River, Ore., his birthplace. His parents were homesteaders in the area and owned a ranch, where he was born on October 27, 1920.

Parker's wife of 62 years, Naomi, says she met her husband because their parents owned ranches that were only three miles apart. The two married on Nov. 15, 1941, and began a family that now includes two daughters and three sons as well as nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

"He was interested in all of their interests," Naomi says. "He never missed a graduation, a recital, a cheerleading camp—anything."

The family moved to Sunnyvale in the late 1950s, where Parker took a position as a traffic and transportation analyst for Lockheed Missiles & Space, now Lockheed Martin. While in Sunnyvale, Naomi volunteered with El Camino Hospital, and they both took courses at De Anza College. A photography class in particular seemed to grab Parker. "He had his own darkroom at one time," Naomi says. "He was a jack of all trades, but he really liked those classes he took in photography."

His love for the visual arts continued after retirement, when he and Naomi bought a motorhome and racked up over 214,000 miles on it. "We drove across Alaska and Canada, and I don't know how many times we went back and forth across the U.S.," Naomi says. Their travels gave Parker the opportunity to record thousands of hours of video, which he fashioned into showcases of the many places they'd been.

With their family spread throughout the U.S., the time spent in their motorhome was also time traveling from one child's home to the other, something Naomi says characterized Parker's personality. "He was a very friendly, gentle person," she says. "He never had a bad word for anyone."

Memorial contributions can be made to the Northern Arizona Hospice or to the National Foundation for Cancer Research, c/o Anderson's Tribute Center, 1401 Belmont Ave., Hood River, OR 97031.

Gloria White was a dedicated social worker some 30 years

Gloria Taylor White, a resident of Sunnyside Gardens Assisted Living in Sunnyvale, died on Nov. 19 at the age of 81. White, who worked as a social worker in New York City for more than 30 years, moved to California in 2001. She used the tenacity honed through her job on her journey to the West Coast.

"She was not someone who liked to fly, so we brought her out here by train," says her daughter, Pamela Alston of Cupertino. She says White nearly went stir-crazy since her walker made it nearly impossible to navigate the hallways, but she made it to California just fine.

As the wife of Edward Clayton, Alston's father and a managing editor for Jet magazine, White entertained a number of famous African American celebrities at her home in Chicago, including Nat King Cole and Sidney Poitier.

After Clayton's death in the 1960s, White moved her two daughters to New York, where she resumed a career in social work that had begun with Cook County in Chicago.

"She took me out on her rounds, and it made me so sad," Alston says. "I thought, 'Wow. This is hard work.'" White regularly dealt with families on welfare and the elderly, but never let them overwhelm her. "She had great empathy for her clients and their situations, but she was never the pitying type," Alston says. White would happily give her clients things her family no longer needed.

White remarried, and later divorced, but remained in New York after her retirement. Alston says her mother was a movie buff and bookworm who loved the energy of Manhattan. White moved to California after Alston's sister, Barbara Clayton Clark, died of breast cancer. Here, White was closer to her family.

"She was a fiercely loyal person," Alston says. "She was protective of her children and grandchildren, but she also had her own mind."

In addition to her daughter, White leaves behind a grandson, John F. Alston of Irrigon, Ore.; granddaughters Krishna and Ayana Alston of Davis; and sisters Anne T. White of Chicago and Lillian M. Wright of Frankfort, Ky.