Former Fort Payne mayor and long-time police chief Bob Parker died Thursday afternoon at Trinity Hospital in Birmingham. He was 75.Parker, the father or former Fort Payne Councilman and current Assistant City Clerk Andy Parker and retired Fort Payne Police Officer Wade Parker, spent 44 years as a city employee, working 23 as police chief before retiring in 1994. Funeral arrangements had not been finalized as of Thursday afternoon."He was a great public servant and did a great job for our city as a police officer, chief of police, city council member and mayor," Fort Payne Mayor Bill Jordan said. "Our city has lost one of its long-time great public servants. Our city’s thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He will certainly be missed by our city."Parker won election to the Fort Payne City Council in 1996, serving only a year before the council unanimously elected him mayor following the resignation of David Stout. He did not run for re-election in 2000, when Jordan was elected.Parker started work with the police department as a 16-year-old high school student in 1950. He spent two years as a dispatcher before being promoted to patrolman after graduation, but only with his mother’s permission. He needed that blessing because age requirements for patrolmen were 21. At that time, Fort Payne’s police department consisted of seven officers and two cars.He became an investigator and assistant chief in 1968, before being named chief in 1971."Bob Parker was a public servant and a legend in Fort Payne and DeKalb County," Fort Payne Police Commissioner Ron Ogletree said. "He was dedicated to his family and to the city that he served. He was a true public servant in every sense of the word. He’ll be greatly missed." Former Mayor Bob Parker will lie in state at Wilson’s Funeral Home on Friday and Saturday, May 8 and 9 from 5 p.m until 8 p.m. on both days. The funeral will be Sunday, April 10 at 3 p.m. with interment at Glenwood Cemetery.