Obituary: Parks, Leonard G.
Age 101
He received his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1935 and a MS in 1937 from the University of Iowa.
In 1934, he married Evelyn Fitzgerald, a student at the University.
He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Reserve, through his ROTC Service.
Interested in flying, he received his Private Pilot’s License in 1939.
Employed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, Tennessee until 1942, he was involved in the design of many hydroelectric power plants.
Entering active duty as a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1942, he commanded a Signal Company at Fort George Wright in Spokane 1942-1943 being promoted to Captain in 1942.
Promoted to Major, he served as acting Signal Officer of the Second Air Force in 1943 in Colorado Springs.
He attended Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1944 and the Army Industrial College also in 1944.
Honorably discharged in 1946 with the rank of Lt.
Colonel, he remained in the Army Reserve until he was retired in 1972.
Leonard was employed as a Consulting Electrical Engineer by Ebasco Services in New York City until 1961.
While at Ebasco he was a member of the team that designed and constructed Cabinet Gorge and Noxon Rapids dams and a number of dams on the Snake River.
He was also involved in the preliminary design of the Washington Water Power headquarters building.
In 1961, he accepted the position of Engineering Vice President of Uris Buildings Corporation, the largest firm of builders in New York City.
He supervised the electrical design and construction and awarded electrical contracts of fifteen high rise office buildings, as well as the New York Hilton, and Washington Hilton hotels.
In 1973, he returned to Consulting Engineering as a limited partner in Lehr Associates in New York until he retired in 1978.
In 1977, he made a survey of the electrical installations in the Davenport Hotel.
During his engineering career he worked in more than 40 countries and traveled over one and one half million miles by air.
His wife Evelyn passed away in 1973, and in 1977 he married the former Harriet Gonzales of Spokane.
He was a member of the National Honorary Scientific Society of Sigma Xi and a fellow of the Illuminating Engineering Society.
He was a member of the American Standards Association and chaired the committee, which he developed American Standards Practice for Industrial Lighting over a period of eight years.
He greatly enjoyed bowling and was the secretary for many years of the Silver Seniors.
He was an avid hiker and made four trips to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, hiking more than 150 miles in the canyon.
On one of his Grand Canyon trips, he hiked alone out of the canyon at night by the light of a full moon.
In 1976, he and a friend made a float trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
In 1983, he toured Alaska for a month in a motor home.
His wife Harriett preceded him in death.
He is survived by three sons, Keith of Port Jefferson, NY; Greg of Melbourne, FL; Paul Lawrence of Spokane WA.
He had six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A Memorial service will be scheduled later at Rockwood South Hill.
The family requests any memorial donations be made to the University of Iowa Foundation for the benefit of the Leonard G. Parks Memorial Scholarship Fund, PO Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244-4550.