  This review provides a brief account of the life of Eugene Parker (1927-2022)
and discusses his contributions to plasma astrophysics. Growing up in Michigan,
he went to graduate school at Caltech and then worked at the University of Utah
before shifting to the University of Chicago, where he spent the rest of his
illustrious career. Parker's most important scientific works are discussed in
the context of the historical development of plasma astrophysics. In the study
of the Sun, he made enormous contributions both to the MHD of the solar
convection zone (including the formulation of turbulent dynamo theory) and to
the understanding of the outer solar atmosphere (including the theory of
coronal heating and the prediction of the solar wind). Parker's non-solar
contributions include the Parker instability in the interstellar gas and the
Parker limit of magnetic monopoles. We also try to convey an idea of Parker's
highly individualistic personality and his very unique way of doing science.
