Jackson Parker, avid collector of wildfowl decoys; at 86

Jackson L. Parker had no taste for wildfowl or urge to hunt them, but he couldn't resist a decoy. He regarded decoys, some worth thousands of dollars, as a part of Americana. He loved their place in history and the workmanship that went into them, friends said.

A former advertising executive and publisher of an advertising magazine, Mr. Parker pursued his interest in decoys with fervor after retiring at 65, and for more than a quarter-century played a vital role in helping to develop part of the collection of wildfowl decoys at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, said Dan L. Monroe, the museum's director and CEO.

Mr. Parker, formerly of Newtonville, died June 17 of Parkinson's disease at the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale. He was 86. His wife of 63 years, Vivian (Miller), died in December.

Mr. Parker knew the market for decoys so well that he was known as "the Dow Jones of decoy collecting," said Joe Engers, editor and publisher of Decoy Magazine in Delaware, to which Mr. Parker was a regular contributor.

Roger Barton, who was part of a West Coast group of decoy collectors, wrote in a 1980s newsletter that "Jackson Parker is to decoy writing what Dr. Ruth is to sex, which is to say that neither of them invented it but it has never been the same since they discovered it."

Mr. Parker, who always enjoyed a good laugh, said his great-niece, Susan Mirrer of Andover, would have considered Barton's comment a compliment.

In a 1990 interview in Decoy Magazine, Mr. Parker described how he became enchanted with decoys. One rainy day on Cape Cod, he said, his wife "dragged" him into an antique shop.

"I wandered into a small room full of decoys," he said in the interview. "I was fascinated particularly by the Crowells. They were priced at $200 to $300 apiece but were beyond my budget. I was hooked, however, and agonized over paying Steve Tyng's father $28 for a non-descript bluebill that 'spoke to me.' "

Mr. Parker was born in Brooklyn, N.Y, one of four children, to Joseph, a grocer, and Rachel. His mother died when he was 6 and he was brought up by his sister, Beatrice, who later had two daughters RuthEllen and Amy.

Beatrice died when RuthEllen was 6 and Amy was 4.

"Jack was like an older brother to us rather than an uncle," said RuthEllen Mirrer.

"Like Peter Pan," she said, "Jack never grew up and he filled our lives with fun and whimsy. Even as a grown-up he was making origami animals to delight children of all ages."

During World War II, Susan Mirrer said, Mr. Parker served in the Army in upstate New York, where he spent three years writing service manuals. After his discharge, Mr. Parker enrolled at Brooklyn College, where he met Vivian Miller. He graduated in 1942. They married the following year and settled in Brooklyn, where their son, David Miller Parker, was born.

In 1952, the family moved to Worcester, where Mr. Parker took a job creating ads for marketing campaigns and was a publisher of magazines about electronics, Susan Mirrer said.

They moved to Newtonville five years later when Mr. Parker took another job in advertising. The couple were very involved with the community and at Temple Shalom, Susan Mirrer said.

At the age of 65, Mr. Parker put the advertising world behind him to pursue his love of decoys.

Self-taught in the field, he became a guest curator at the Peabody Essex Museum, said Susan Mirrer. "He was just brilliant," she said.

In addition to donating several decoys from his personal collection, he guided the museum in acquisitions, said Jane Winchell, the Sarah Fraser Robbins director of the Art & Nature Center and curator of natural history at the Peabody Essex Museum.

"Under his guidance, the museum has one of the best collections made in Massachusetts," Winchell said. "It is one of the first areas of the country where we know artisans made decoys way back in the early 1800s. Massachusetts was one of the hotspots."

Mr. Parker also collected wind-up toys, and with his wife, cultivated an interest in contemporary art.

When the couple moved into an assisted living residence in Jamaica Plain in 1997, RuthEllen Mirrer said, the Parkers exhibited their art collection.

In his introduction to the exhibit Mr. Parker explained how he and his wife had accumulated the art works on a budget.

"They were not rich," he wrote of himself and his wife, "but they budgeted for art, following the teaching of the Chinese sage who said, 'If you had two pennies, do not buy two loaves of bread; buy one loaf of bread and a flower.

"Their art budget was their cigarette money; since neither ever smoked, they put aside what they would have spent for cigarettes and bought paintings with that money."

Mr. Parker continued writing for decoy and historic magazines until several years ago, despite his 17-year battle with Parkinson's disease.

And he never lost that Peter Pan-like quality, RuthEllen Merrer said. He continued to enchant a younger generation with his collection of wind-up toys and his whimsical nature.

"Jack was in his 70s and young children in the neighborhood were always knocking at the door asking if 'Jackson could come out and play,' " she said.

The Peabody Essex Museum and the Massachusetts Fish & Wildlife Service plan to honor Mr. Parker at the State Waterfowl Stamp Competition Reception at the museum in September in conjunction with the display of entries for the 35th annual stamp design.

A memorial service will be held for Mr. Parker and his wife in the fall.