Georgia Hospital Association, colleagues honor Dr. Anthony Parker

ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) - The Georgia Hospital Association is honoring the late Dr. Anthony Parker with its Distinguished Service Award. Parker was Albany Tech’s president for almost 30 years and a force for healthcare workers in southwest Georgia.

Staff at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital say healthcare in Southwest Georgia will be positively impacted for years to come due to Dr. Parker’s vision and hard work.

Parker passed away in June 2022. He was the president of Albany Technical College for 27 years. He was also on the Phoebe Board of Directors from 2004-2008 and on the Phoebe Putney Health System Board from 2009 up until his death.

“Really throughout his career, he brought trades and degrees to Albany Tech. that served the healthcare community. He was passionate about it,” Phoebe Putney Health System President and CEO, Scott Steiner said. “And Dr. Parker had cancer. And when he had cancer and was cured of that here at Phoebe. It just increased his desire to want to feed healthcare workers, nurses, you name it. He was passionate about putting people to work. Especially in the healthcare field.”

To help aid the healthcare workforce, Dr. Parker also worked to bring many programs to the Good Life City.

Dr. Emmett Griswold is the current Albany Technical College president.

“He came to Albany in 1995 and upon his death in year ‘22, he brought a lot of healthcare programs to the area. Such as the social nursing program, the practical nursing program, nurse aid. All of those are healthcare programs that were needed for workforce development in the area,” Griswold said.

Many of his efforts are still in the works today.

“Dr. Parker was unselfish,” Steiner said. “He thought of his family, he thought of his team at Albany Tech. He thought of the community first. And we’re eternally grateful for that. We sure miss him. But we know his legacy goes on. And he’s smiling right now as he sees us building the Living & Learning Center. Cause he knows what’s to come for our great community.”

The center is in addition to the many healthcare graduates he helped throughout their education, ultimately helping to land essential jobs in Southwest Georgia.

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