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John A. "Jack" Parker had an eye for aesthetics and a way with people. You
could find ample evidence of both qualities at the many parties he and his wife
Jane once hosted for students and faculty at their garden patio behind their
home on Ransom Street, said longtime friend and colleague David Moreau.
Parker, the founder of the University's Department of City and Regional
Planning, died March 18 at the age of 91.
Moreau, who now serves as chair of the department, said there are not enough
words to capture the quality of the man or the importance of his contributions
here.
"Jack was a consummate gentleman to start with," Moreau said. "He was a very
likeable person, certainly a model for what you would like to see in the
leadership of a department from a faculty standpoint."
And he treated students not as customers but as people he cared about. And he
did the same with his colleagues. "He was famous for his garden parties and
entertaining students and making them feel at home here," Moreau said.
Parker was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and grew up in Vancouver, British
Columbia. In the early 1930s, he earned master's degrees in architecture and in
city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 1934, he began his career teaching architecture at Lowthorpe School of
Landscape Architecture in Groton, Mass. He was named the director of the school
the following year, a position he held until 1945.
He served a year as the director of the Planning Division of the Rhode Island
School of Design before Frank Porter Graham, UNC president, offered him the
chance to develop a new graduate program in city and regional planning at
Carolina.
He served as chair of the department for the next 28 years.
During his long tenure, Moreau said, Parker moved the program from nothing to
one of the most elite programs in the United States. And even after Parker
retired in 1974, Moreau said, "he remained a great friend of the department and
was a constant source of encouragement and advice."
Moreau came here from Harvard in 1968 and one of the reasons he knew he wanted
to come was Parker, who sat across from him in his job interview.
"Jack just had a wonderful way of encouraging you, of being a friend. He had a
great interest in people and enjoyed people and knew how to make them feel
comfortable."
In 1974, Parker was elected to the University's Order of the Golden Fleece and
received Special Recognition for Outstanding Contributions and Leadership in
Planning Education from the American Institute of Planners. In 1982, the N.C.
Chapter of the American Planning Association honored him with the Distinguished
Professional Achievement Award. In 1994, Parker was awarded the Distinguished
Planning Educator Award of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning.
Memorials may be made to the John A. and Jane C. Parker Endowment Fund, Office
of Development, P.O. Box 309, Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514-0309.
Another notable death
Carolina chemistry professor Slayton Evans died March 24. Look for a tribute
story in an upcoming Gazette.
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