Caryn Hill
Siena Neighborhood
Meet your neighbor Gordon Parkhill
Center Pointe Neighborhood
The wildlife photos taken by Rancho Vistoso resident Gordon Parkhill, this month’s Meet Your Neighbor, perfectly emulate the adage, “a picture is worth a thousand words” by beautifully telling the story of where we live.
Gordon and his wife Anita’s location in Center Pointe, adjacent to the Vistoso Nature Trails Preserve, provides the perfect backdrop for capturing birds and wildlife activities happening right in Rancho Vistoso. Many of his photos have been used by the Preserve Vistoso organization in order to communicate the natural beauty and abundance of wildlife in our neighborhood. During negotiations with the abandoned golf course owners, Gordon sent his wildlife photos to the Oro Valley Mayor and City Council to demonstrate the incredible wildlife corridor that exists in the preserve. But most of his photos, which he captures primarily while having coffee in his backyard using a fairly modest Nikon Coolpix camera, are used just for pleasure and sent to family and friends.
Gordon and Anita moved to Centerpointe in 2017, after living in Anacortes, Washington for thirteen years. Although they miss their views of Puget Sound and watching the ferries go back and forth, they revel in the Sonoran Desert with its majestic mountain views.
The Vietnam draft altered Gordon’s original life plans and instead of a career in the banking industry and settling in the Pacific Northwest where both he and Anita were raised, Gordon spent a 37-year working career starting with the Air Force (Virginia, Germany and the Pentagon). After the Air Force, while raising their two children, Gordon worked for the Boeing Company (Seattle) and finally with NATO (Belgium) in the military command and control and interoperability field. It was with NATO that he and Anita were able to travel to all the NATO nations. They continued to travel after retiring from NATO and have visited every continent except Antarctica.
These days Gordon and Anita spend time visiting their summer place in Show Low, hiking the White Mountains and traveling a bit more locally. The one constant in Gordon’s life, besides his charming wife Anita, has been his camera. But Gordon will be the first to tell you that what makes his photos so special is not his camera or his photography skills, it’s the wildlife.
Do you have a neighbor we should meet? Please tell us at [email protected] why you think they would be good to meet and supply the neighbor’s phone number and email address. Also, be sure to let your neighbor know that you referred them to us.