Good works: after making millions, Bruce Parker focused on philanthropy. Investors wish he would have been minding his own business.

• Author: Speizer, Irwin
• Position: Feature

The building is on a street of shabby brick warehouses in a Charlotte neighborhood where the only green comes from weeds sprouting in driveway cracks. Inside, Bruce Parker -- a wiry bundle of energy in white Nikes, wrinkled chinos and a pastel pullover -- bounds around wearing a smile that doesn't fit his surroundings. Or his life.

Not if you consider that in five years, Parker, 54, has gone from millionaire philanthropist and darling of Charlotte's powerful to near financial ruin. He was once courted for his generosity, but in Charlotte financial circles, he has become a pariah.

Parker pulled down $15 million, before taxes, in 1996 when he sold the company he founded, orthopedic-splint maker Parker Medical Associates LP. He gave half his after-tax gain to charities and needy people, saying he didn't need the money. He lost most of the rest by neglecting his remaining businesses. One of his companies -- sport protective-gear maker Parker Athletic Products LLC -- owes $1.5 million to 120 creditors. They can't accuse Parker of enriching himself at their expense. The company also gobbled up more than $2.5 million of his money.

Parker insists he doesn't miss the millions -- or the adulation. He vows that if he had it to do all over again, he would do the same thing. Hoarding money and living lavishly are worse than losing it, he says. "Sometimes you run into people whose sincerity is so real, they look odd," says Gloria Pace King, president of United Way of Central Carolinas. "But maybe they aren't so odd."

Someone who had the misfortune of investing in one of Parker's recent ventures is less charitable. "He is a great guy, the sort you would want to have lunch with, play a round of golf with," says David Yarborough, a Charlotte investor in and lender to Parker Athletic. "But he is not the guy you would want to invest with. It costs too much. He borrowed money from a bank, took money from venture-capital investors, bought materials and services on credit, and he didn't pay anybody back." Parker is trying to chip away at his company's debt but has made little progress.

Who is Bruce Parker? A spendthrift who squandered other people's money while chasing a self-aggrandizing dream of being Charlotte's most visible philanthropist? Or a well-intentioned do-gooder who got carried away when he ended up making more money than he dreamed possible?

In a city of millionaire entrepreneurs racing to the next deal in Lexuses, Parker drives a white 1998 Subaru or a Dodge pick-up. And while millionaires often make big donations to charity, they generally don't imperil their future earnings. But Parker did. He gave away principal and did it in a hurry, doling out $6 million in four years.

Parker grew up in Davidson, the son of the wrestling coach at Davidson College. His father and mother hammered home the importance of charity by making him tithe...