Bob Parrish made Thomas County better

Published 4:27 pm Thursday, July 24, 2025

Over the years, I have shared some personal reflections and recollections regarding special individuals who have helped make Thomasville and Thomas County the special place it is. Today, I offer the next installment of such, this time offered in tribute to my friend Bob Parrish.

I met Bob when he was an assistant principal at Magnolia Middle School many moons ago, and immediately knew he was my kind of people. Not only was he a staunch advocate for education and young people, but he was also a musician and huge history nut.

Bob was an intriguing mixture of conservative values and downright flamboyance. Some of the outfits that he wore through the years are still the stuff of legend. His houndstooth pants particularly became legendary with the students under his guidance and tutelage, and even though he retired many years ago, to this day, many of those students speak about those pants and some of Bob’s outfits with a broad grin.

Like me, Bob loved family genealogy. He had traced his bloodlines back to ancestors who stepped off the Mayflower, and then some. I always enjoyed comparing notes with him regarding trying to dig up the gold nuggets from our collective DNA lines.

And oh my goodness, his sense of humor. He was always armed and ready with a joke, and took great joy out of hearing the best knee-slapper you could offer up as well. I am sure that some of the joke-telling sessions between the two of us are still echoing through outer space as we speak, although it must be said that none of them were the type of material that would keep either one of us from consideration for entering the pearly gates.

Ok – for the most part, anyway.

But the one thing Bob did not joke about was Alabama football. I found this out the hard way.

Raised in Alabama and a graduate of the University of Alabama, I feel sure that Bob is convinced that Bear Bryant occupies a seat somewhere near God‘s throne in heaven. The only times over the years Bob and I butted heads were about something I had said or written regarding college football.

When Alabama crushed Georgia’s heart in the national championship game of 2018, Bob was quick to send me a sympathetic email that detailed all of the many reasons Alabama simply deserved to win the game and how Georgia just wasn’t ready to wear the crown. I graciously replied with reluctant acceptance and moved on.

So back in 2021, when Georgia defeated Alabama for the national championship, being a huge Dawg, I naturally wrote a celebratory column for these pages about the game. In that column, I commented that “Georgia’s team had finally overcome the brood from the nether regions,“ referring, of course, to the Crimson Tide football team.

Now, anybody who knows me knows I’m not going to say anything purposely ugly or hurtful about anything or anybody. And, in line with that, that particular sentence was offered in pure jest.

However, Bob did not see it that way. The following day, I received another extremely eloquent, extensive email with a detailed history of what the nether regions were and were not. Bob voiced his displeasure, and in doing so demanded an explanation, wanting to know whether I was referring to Alabama being from hell or the private parts of some mystical creature. I was honestly surprised he didn’t challenge me to a duel at the following sunrise.

Only after my response explaining that the nether regions reference in question meant pretty much anywhere that wasn’t Georgia, and that no real offense was intended at all, did Bob accept the apology. However, that only happened after a couple of days had gone by and he had a chance to process my reply and take a deep breath while doing so.

Needless to say, anybody who is passionate and dedicated to anything in this day and time has my respect.

Bob and his lovely wife Jinanne have been cornerstones of the historical community here in Thomasville and Thomas County for decades. He and I were proud members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans here and spent many days together placing flags on the graves of Thomas County soldiers at our local cemeteries.

Bob was also a quite accomplished pianist. For years, he joyfully provided musical accompaniment for things like the Kiwanis Club, among others, always taking whatever songs it might have been that he was playing and turning them into something of his own creation.

Last week, he went in for a fairly routine medical procedure, and complications took him. If there has ever been anybody that I can say was 80 years young, it was Bob Parish.

A true Renaissance man, Bob Parrish is yet another gifted soul who is leaving Thomas County better off than it ever would have been without him. I’m proud to have known him and called him my friend. It’s not often that you find somebody that you mesh with so well on so many levels, but that was how I felt about him. As another of his Crimson Tide heroes, Forrest Gump, might say: “We fit together like peas and carrots.“

Thanks for everything, Bob. Give my regards to Coach Bryant…and, as much as it might pain you, to Coach Dooley, too.