Denver biz journalist Parker has died

Penny Parker, a business journalist for the Rocky Mountain News and the Denver Post, has died at the age of 62.

Bruce Finley of the Post writes, “She joined The Denver Post as a features reporter in the early 1990s, then moved to the business department. She jumped to the rival Rocky Mountain News to be an ‘On the Town’ columnist — a high-profile position covering social scenes at restaurants among chefs, the famous — such as lawyer Steve Farber and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb — and the nearly famous.

“She made many friends. After the Rocky Mountain News closed in 2009, Parker returned to The Post, where she worked as a business columnist until 2012.

“‘She was vivacious and funny and smart,’ public relations executive Wendy Aiello said. ‘She loved being a reporter. She knew what she wanted to do from the minute she got into college. She said, ‘I always want to be in a newsroom.’ ”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.