Mark was a young man who had spent most of his life in Timaru, educated at Timaru Boys High School and graduated from Otago University with a BComm degree, double majoring in Marketing and Management.

Mark first worked for Frucor in Wellington as a salesperson and after two years went to England to work and play cricket for Winchester in the Hampshire Leagues.

He had completed his third and most successful season with Winchester and scored over 700 runs at aproximately 80 runs per inning.

Mark's plans were to call into Bali for a weeks holiday before coming back to New Zealand to play for Onslow with the hope of also playing first class cricket for Wellington. He had previously played first class cricket for Otago.

Mark had various jobs in London and worked for two different banks - one twice (Schroders). At 27, Mark had passed through those nervous doubting years of youth, and was in the next stage of acceptance when he knew he could do things and ahd proven to himself that he could improve or make a difference for other people, teams that he was part of or organisations he worked for.

Latterly he gained great confidence from his trip through South America, Schroder's offering him employment again and the great season he had with Winchester. He was starting to see some results from sticking to the ideals of his parents and family. Mark was entering those years when one enjoys the results of all that learning. He was increasingly having a significant impact on every environment he was in.

He had won respect of himself - which is perhaps the hardest thing of all.

We were starting to see a young man who was pleased with what he had become. Those that met him also appeared to be impressed as he was extremely popular, with no one having anything but positive things to say about Mark, and Mark said little negative about others.

Mark had the potential to be a leader - perhaps a great one - and would have contributed significantly to New Zealand or wherever he might have been. The Mark Parker Memorial Trust is about assisting other young people with leadership ability - like Mark - to fulfil their potential and make a real contribution to New Zealand.