During his forty-year coaching career at the Poly Prep, Harlow Parker garnered a remarkable combined career total of 509 wins, 232 losses, and 14 ties. Poly's baseball teams won an extraordinary 19 Ivy League Prep School Championships during Parker's tenure.
Hired in 1947 Parker was promoted to Director of Athletics and Physical Education in 1949. He was promoted to Dean of Boys in 1960 and became Dean of Students when the school became co-educational in 1977. In 1980, Parker was promoted to Assistant Headmaster. He retired in 1987.
More than a brilliant and successful baseball coach, Parker was a true educator and mentor.
In 1997, in recognition of his many years of continued service to the school, Poly Prep named its renovated baseball field after Parker and retired his No. 6 jersey. A scholarship for scholar-athletes was also endowed in his name.
Parker's influence extended far beyond Poly Prep, too. Exemplifying Poly's commitment to the community, he served four terms as President of the Ivy Prep School League, an athletic organization of independent schools in the New York City metropolitan area.
Parker won many other distinctions, including: the 1977 ABCA Honor Award; the 1977 and 1987 New York City Coach of the Year award from The New York Daily News; and a 1984 ABCA/Diamond District 1 Coach of the Year award.
