Edwin B. Parker (Honours Philosophy) died in January 2025.

He received an MA and PhD in Communication from Stanford University, and was a professor at Stanford from 1962 to 1979. He was a pioneering researcher on the role of telecommunications in socio-economic development and on the explication and analysis of the information economy. He was also cofounder of Equatorial Communications, a start-up that developed the first small commercial satellite terminals (VSATs) for data communications.

Ed Parker co-authored numerous papers, publications, and three books: Television in the Lives of our Children, Rural America in the Information Age, and Electronic Byways.

He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioural Sciences, and a member of several advisory bodies on telecommunications, cable television, and data networks.

His research on telemedicine experiments in rural Alaska led to a collaboration with government and industry officials to bring operational satellite services to Alaska villages. Parker left Stanford to head Equatorial Communications; later, he continued research and consulting on telecommunications for rural development, even during his retirement in Portland, Oregon.

In addition to being an academic, Ed Parker described himself as a social entrepreneur. He stated: "My four proudest accomplishments are: contributions to the early development of the internet, bringing satellite communication to rural Alaska, founding the satellite data network industry, and starting Oregon Health Network."