Harry Parker Dies at 77 Harry Parker, who coached Harvard rowers with unrivaled success for more than half a century and coached both men's and women's Olympic medal-winning crews, died on Tuesday in Boston. The cause was myelodysplastic syndrome, a blood disorder, Harvard said on its Web site. Parker, who rowed single sculls at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, where he finished fifth, was an omnipresent figure in rowing at both the collegiate and national levels for decades. Between 1964 and 1984 he coached men's and women's Olympic rowers; his 1972 men's eight - a boat with eight rowers and a coxswain, whose prime responsibility is steering - won a silver medal. He was the head coach of the women's Olympic rowing team in 1976, when the women's eight earned a bronze. In 1975 he coached the first American women's eight to compete in the world championships; the crew won a silver medal. Parker was among the best rowing coaches in collegiate history. His varsity heavyweight eights won eight national titles, earned more than 20 championships in the prestigious Eastern Sprints, and had 22 unbeaten seasons in his 51 years as coach. His record in the all-important Harvard-Yale regatta was 44-7, including a victory this month. Comparisons with legendary coaches in other sports, like Knute Rockne in football at Notre Dame and John Wooden in basketball at U.C.L.A., are absolutely appropriate, said Gary Caldwell, the commissioner of the Intercollegiate Rowing Association, which administers the national championships. "He was the most successful coach of the 1960s, and it could be said he still was in the 2000s," Caldwell said. His ability to be successful at the same place over such a long period is unparalleled. Parker arrived at Harvard in 1961 as coach of the freshman crews and became coach of the varsity heavyweight crews two years later. He brought European-designed boats and oars to Harvard, as well as a German rowing style that modified the oarsmen's conventional three-part mechanism - stroke, recovery, catch - into a more continuous repetitive motion. He also changed his team's training methods, including adding fall workouts, unheard of at the time for a sport whose races were held in the spring. In 1965, Parker and his varsity boat were pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline "Harvard Coach Harry Parker and the World's Best Crew." Beyond the innovations in equipment and training, Parker was known as a personality. Like Rockne and Wooden, he became legendary in his sport and something of a cult figure on campus. A taciturn but highly competitive figure, he imbued in his athletes a sense of purpose and dedication that helped his crews cohere and endure both the anticipated and experienced agony at the finish of a close race. And his influence was lasting, some of his former rowers say. "The standards Harry set were there long after you stopped rowing," said Kip McDaniel, a financial writer who rowed varsity crew for Harvard from 2002 to 2004. Before a race, you knew the pain was unavoidable. But one of Harry's great gifts was for creating crews. They were communities where there was simply no doubt that everyone was going to live up to Harry's expectations, and as a result you were probably going to win the race. As news of Parker's death spread, similar sentiments were expressed by others from previous generations. "Working with him, you saw that as you applied yourself, you could apply yourself a bit more," said Dr. Paul G. Ramsey, who rowed for Harvard from 1967 to 1971. Now chief executive of UW Medicine, which operates hospitals and clinics in Washington State, and dean of the University of Washington medical school, Dr. Ramsey added, "He was the best teacher I ever had." Harry Lambert Parker was born on Oct. 28, 1935, in Fitchburg, Mass. His father was a carpenter. After high school in East Hartford, Conn., where he played baseball and basketball, he attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he rowed on the varsity eight under the venerable coach Joe Burk, who sparked his interest in coaching. While a member of the Naval Reserve, Parker trained for the 1959 Pan American Games, where he won a gold medal in single sculls, and applied for a coaching position at the Naval Academy but did not get it. He landed the Harvard job after his Olympic appearance and became head coach in 1963, replacing Harvey Love, who had died of a heart attack. Parker's first marriage, to the former Elinor Goodwin, ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn Keeler; a sister, Nancy; two sons, David and George; a daughter, Abigail; and five grandchildren. "It's not quite fun the way other sports are, like kicking and maneuvering in soccer," Parker once said of rowing. It's not a game. Basically, it's hard work. He also said, "I vastly prefer winning to losing."