Stephen Parker was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York and received his bachelors, masters, and doctorate from Cornell University. His bachelors in 1960 was in world literature and biology; his major for his masters in 1962 focused on Russian literature with a minor in French literature, and that carried into his doctorate in 1969. His dissertation and major area of research was on Vladimir Nabokov-Sirin's novels; Parker studied under Nabokov at Cornell.

Parker was an assistant professor in the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Oklahoma from 1966-1967. In 1967 he came to the University of Kansas and joined the Slavic Languages and Literatures department. In 1974 he was promoted to associate professor and reached full professor status in 1986.

Parker held various administrative positions at KU, including director of graduate studies for the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures as well as associate chair and chair of the department. He also served as the Core School Director for the Council on International Education Exchange for Russian Language Programs in the USSR from 1977-1987.

Parker married Marie-Luce, with whom he had two children, Sandra (Parker) McGill and Richard.

Stephen J. Parker retired in 2011 and passed away in March 2016.