W. George Parks
(Director from 1947-1968)
W. George Parks was the second Director of the Gordon Research Conferences.
Parks was born in Rockwood, Pennsylvania on December 20, 1904. After attending the
University of Pennsylvania for his undergraduate degree, Parks went to Columbia University in New
York, where he earned both Master's and Ph.D. degrees in chemistry. His 1931 doctoral thesis was
titled "The Activity Coefficients and Heats of Transfer of Cadmium-Sulfate from Electromotive Force
Measurements at 25 And 0 Degrees". Upon graduation, Parks accepted a position on the faculty at
Rhode Island State College, later renamed the University of Rhode Island, where he taught for
thirty-seven years as a chemistry professor.
In 1947, Parks was appointed director of what would soon become the Gordon Research
Conferences. Among his first acts was to select a new venue for the conferences: Colby Junior
College in New London, New Hampshire, where Parks was a trustee. He also hired Alexander and
Irene Cruickshank to assist in the administrative operations and running of the conferences. After
running ten conferences in the summer of 1947, the GRC headquarters were moved to the University
of Rhode Island. During the next two decades, Parks presided over steady growth in the number of
conferences and attendees.
In 1950, Parks became chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Rhode Island.
In 1968, after twenty-one years as director of GRC, Parks resigned and Alexander Cruickshank
assumed directorship of the conferences. Parks also resigned his post as professor at the University
of Rhode Island, but continued on as professor emeritus until his death in October 1975.