Parker has won multiple awards for wildlife sculpture at major art shows in the United States.

Parker's father, who by 1963 was an aspiring country western singer and guitarist, met a woman nearly twice his age in a Kalispell night club and decided to eschew his marital and parental responsibilities by leaving town with her—abandoning his family—and headed for California where he thought he would become a famous musician but instead took construction work building a tunnel.

He then took up a position as a carpenter working on the power generating station near the coal strip mining operations in Colstrip, Montana.

He stayed on the job at the power station until 1980 when he returned to Kalispell.In the winter of 1981 Parker met his future wife, Jeanne Drollinger, at the Blue Moon nightclub in Columbia Falls.

As a couple, the Parkers are engaged as a hobby in riding, and to a lesser extent raising, horses and mules.

Parker was an average student in school, generally receiving "C" grades, but he always excelled in art, his favorite subject.

Parker's sculpting style can best be described as "realism" in the sense that he wants his finished product to look exactly like the wild animal would appear in its natural environment.

His sculptures convey the animals' natural stances and movements, never appearing frozen unless that is his specific intent as in the case of a deer, for example, standing still.

[10] In 1998, Jack Nicklaus and his wife Barbara purchased Parker's Members Only grizzly bear sculpture which had been for sale in the Western Wildlife Gallery in San Francisco.

While on a hunting trip in 1989 at Taylor Ranch in Colorado, Parker met Oklahoma City businessman Robert A. Funk.

A deal was struck between the two that resulted in Parker casting a now sold out 50-piece edition called Express Ranch Clydesdale.

Parker has created a number of monumental sculptures, the most notable being Yellowstone Legacy[4] and Black Mesa Mulies.

He created the bear statue in clay, but it was never cast in bronze and delivered to the City of Kalispell due to a contract dispute.

[16] Howington stated that she generally supported public art but believed putting a large statue at the corners of an intersection could be a safety hazard, blocking the views of drivers.