That Carl A. Parker has lived a special life is revealed not in the accolades he’s garnered but in the good he has accomplished.

Sure enough, at 84 he collected a belated honor Saturday, when he was inducted into the Notable People Hall of Fame in the Museum of the Gulf Coast. Who knew he wasn’t enshrined already?

That’s because his statue has long rested atop the steps on the museum’s second floor, there to greet patrons and visitors as they climb the stairs.

Parker in 1994 was one of nine luminaries — he was the seventh — who sat through good natured “roasts” to raise money to support the museum. His event — among those who attended was Gov. Ann Richards — generated more than $100,000. That’s why his statue was there.

Born the son of H.A. and Juanita Christian Parker — his father was a Port Arthur mayor — he was a Thomas Jefferson graduate who earned his undergraduate and law degrees from Texas. He served the country in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves, rose to be speaker pro tem and Senate president pro tem during 32 years in the Legislature, and practiced law on local, state, national and international levels.

But success is not merely a matter of being but of doing. He was lead sponsor or sole sponsor for more than 400 bills that became Texas law. They included bills that created state jail standards, established Lamar Port Arthur and Lamar-Orange, guaranteed equal legal rights for women in Texas, reformed worker compensation, mandated the use of infant car seats and created the Port of Port Arthur.

His legislative interests ranged from public education to economic development, consumer protection, industrial safety and more. As a lawmaker, he represented the interests of, at various times, counties that included Jefferson, Chambers, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Orange, Galveston and Harris County.

The legislation for Lamar State College in Port Arthur and in Orange is still dear to him. He says those local campuses enabled many students to pursue post-high school education locally when transportation was not always readily available for young people to attend college in Beaumont.

“Kids would never have graduated if we didn’t have those institutions in their hometowns,” he said. “If you don’t have any method of transportation you may as well be on the moon.”

Columnist Molly Ivins once credited Parker with the “best quip” of the 1995 session — after Parker lost for reelection and returned to Austin as a lobbyist. A business lobbyist asked Parker how he was doing, Ivins wrote, and Parker answered: “Great! All your friends are hiring me to protect them from all my friends.”

Not Saturday. All Parker’s friends showed up at the Museum to say “Well done.”

And “Thank you.”