William Robert Parks (October 13, 1915 – July 13, 2003) was the 11th president of Iowa State University.
Education:
- B.A. political science Berea College, Kentucky (1937)
- M.A. political science University of Kentucky (1938)
- PhD political science University of Wisconsin–Madison (1945)
Achievements:
- Research & administration with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (1940 - 1948)
- Lieutenant of the United States Navy during World War II
- Professor of government at ISU (1948 - 1956)
- Professor of agricultural economics at University of Wisconsin–Madison (1956 - 1958)
- Dean of Instruction at ISU (1958 - 1961)
- Vice President of Academic Affairs (1961 - 1965)
- 11th president of ISU from 1965 to 1986
- Head of National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges
- Head of Association of American Universities
- Head of Council of Presidents
- Head of Mid-American State Universities Association
- Head of Association of Iowa College Presidents
- Member of the board of trustees of the Teachers Insurance and Annuities-College Retirement Equities Fund
- On board of directors of Norwestern Bell
- On board of directors of Central Life Assurance
- Honorary doctorate from Bear College (1966)
- Honorary doctorate from Westmar College (1968)
- Honorary doctorate from Drake University (1968)
- Named honorary alumnus of ISU (1969)
- Honorary doctorate from University of Kentucky (1973)
- Library named W. Robert and Ellen Sorge Parks Library (1984)
- Received the first Christian Petersen Design Award for his leadership in establishing the College of Design
He married Ellen Sorge (1914 - 1999) and had two daughters: Andrea (Van Howeling) and Cynthia (Hamilton). Ellen was the first woman to receive a PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Famous quotes containing the word parks:
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)