Robert Brown Parker is a novelist and educator. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1932. Parker earned a B.A. from Colby College in 1954, served in the U.S. Army in Korea from 1954 to 1954, and then returned to earn an M.A. from Boston University in 1957. Parker received his Ph.D. from Northwestern. Parker worked as a teacher at Lowell State College in 1964. He also taught at Bridgewater State College and Northwestern University. Parker is co-founder with his wife, Joan, in an independent film company, Pearl Productions. In 1971, Parker published The Godwuff Manuscript, as an a homage to Raymond Chandler. The character he created, Spencer, became his own detective… and was featured in more than twenty novels. Parker's, Spencer character has been featured in six TV movies and the television series Spencer: For Hire, that starred Robert Urich and ran from 1985 to 1988.