Friends of peanut executive laud him

LYNCHBURG -- David Charnock, a disabled cancer patient who lives on Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay, relies on free medical airlifts to make it to the hospital in Norfolk, and the pilot who volunteers to fly him there is Stewart Parnell.

If the name is familiar, it's because Parnell is the president of the Lynchburg-based peanut company at the heart of a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds and possibly killed as many as nine.

But Charnock doesn't think of Parnell as the peanut executive who refused last week to answer questions from a congressional panel, or as the man whose beleaguered company is now the subject of a criminal investigation: Charnock said he thinks of Parnell as the kind fellow who flies a single-engine Ovation to help keep him healthy.

"He's just as nice as he could be. He'd do anything for you," Charnock said yesterday. "The only good thing about being sick is you meet nice people."

Friends of Parnell said the executive's character is most accurately defined by his kind nature, not by the nightly newscasts about his company, the Peanut Corp. of America, which they contend unfairly portray him as a cartoon villain.

Parnell has for years been a volunteer for Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, an organization that pairs aircraft pilots and airplane owners with patients in need of free medical transportation. Parnell is also on standby for organ-transplant patients -- a status that could have him up in the dead of night to ferry a patient to a waiting operating table hundreds of miles away, said Catherin Wallen of Angel Flight.

"Everything I've read in the media has made him appear in a bad light, and it's ridiculous for people who know him," said Richard Stone, a longtime tennis partner of Parnell's who said Parnell has occasionally canceled tennis matches in order to pick up and deliver patients in his airplane.

"As for character, I've never known him to lie, cheat or steal -- ever," Stone said. "Most people are lax with the little things, but he's not."

Friends said the Parnell they know shows up at fundraising events for the Humane Society of the United States and attends Peakland United Methodist Church. He likes boating, the outdoors, sports, dogs and his family, they said.

The public view of Parnell is something altogether different. Last week, the congressional committee investigating the salmonella outbreak and the recall of Peanut Corp. products released e-mails written by Parnell in which he complained that salmonella tests are "costing us huge $$$$$."

More than a dozen lawsuits have been filed against the company, which last week declared bankruptcy.

Former neighbor Mark Borel said Parnell is "not this villain he's being made out to be."

"He's a great guy," Borel said. "He's very charitable, active in the community. He's just an all-around good guy, supportive. When I see him on TV, I just can't believe it."

Parnell, 54, is head of a company that his father, Hugh, founded in 1977, and the company has production plants in Suffolk; Plainview, Texas; and Blakely, Ga. The Blakely plant, according to investigators, was the source of salmonella-tainted products that sickened more than 600 people in 44 states. A recall of Peanut Corp. products forced Parnell to shut down all three plants.

Virginia peanut farmer Jeffrey Pope of Southampton County said he has never had any problems working with Parnell's Suffolk plant. "The dealings have always been great," he said. "They're outstanding, and they're a business we really need."

Stone said he hopes the American public will come to know the Parnell he knows.

"Just because he's not in the Chamber of Commerce doesn't mean he's not an outgoing and sociable person," Stone said. "He doesn't toot his own horn, but he's funny and self-deprecating. He'll crack you up.

"But he doesn't talk a lot. He doesn't seek the limelight."