Hugh G. Parker, Jr.
| Hugh Griffin Parker, Jr.
(Architect who designed Monroe-West Monroe Convention Center and the former Wyly Tower of Learning at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston) | |||
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| Born | July 25, 1934 Bastrop, Morehouse Parish Louisiana, USA Alma mater: | ||
| Spouse | Sarabeth Boughton Parker (married 1963-2007, his death) Children: | ||
| Religion | Southern Baptist | ||
Hugh Griffin Parker, Jr. (July 25, 1934 – November 3, 2007) was an architect from his native Bastrop in Morehouse Parish in northeastern Louisiana. He overcame the worst impact of polio as a youth to design during a 45-year career many public and private buildings, mostly in north Louisiana.[1]
Background
Parker was the son of Hugh Parker, Sr. (1909-1977) and the former Jewel Flynn (1902-1988),[1] originally from rural Oak Ridge, also in Morehouse Parish. In 1949, at the age of fifteen, Parker contracted polio and underwent treatment in New Orleans and thereafter recuperation in Warm Springs, Georgia. In 1952, he graduated from Bastrop High School; four years later, he received a degree in architectural engineering from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.[2]
In 1963, Parker married the former Sarabeth Boughton (born c. 1943); the couple had two daughters, Sharon Lynn Johnson and husband, Charlie, of Garland near Dallas, Texas, and Lee Anne McDonald and husband, Clay, of Choudrant (pronounced SCHEWED RANT) in Lincoln Parish. His surviving sister is Merrilee P. Rogers (born 1936) of Garland.[2]
He was a Paul P. Harris fellow of Rotary International in Monroe, Louisiana.[2]
Career
Parker began practicing solo in 1959. In 1961, he joined the firm founded in the 1940s by the late Allen Turpin. The company underwent several transitions before it assumed the name "Hugh G. Parker, Jr., Architect, Inc." in 1988 in Monroe.[3]
Parker was particularly known for his design of government and educational buildings, churches, residential homes, financial institutions, and state parks, such as Lake Claiborne State Park near Homer in Claiborne Parish. His best known projects were the Monroe/West Monroe Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Wyly Tower of Learning at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, and Malone Stadium[4] and the activities center at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.[5]
Parker designed the city hall and police station in Bastrop. His work is shown in the design of some fifty church buildings, including the Lea Joyner United Methodist Church and Trinity Lutheran Church, both in Monroe, the McGuire United Methodist Church in West Monroe, the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Minden in Webster Parish, and reconstruction of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Bastrop. Parker worked for school boards on such projects as the gymnasiums for Morehouse Junior High School and his alma mater, Bastrop High School. He handled some fifty construction projects for various school boards in Claiborne, Franklin, Ouachita, and Richland parishes as well as the Monroe City Schools.[5] He also designed the Ouachita Independent Bank in West Monroe.[6]
Parker was affiliated with the American Institute of Architects and the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards. In 2002, he was member of the regents of the Louisiana Architectural Foundation. Parker retired from architecture in 2004.[2]In 2006, Timothy Mark "Tim" Brandon (born August 1967) acquired the Parker firm and relocated it to West Monroe, with branch offices in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and Dallas, Texas.[7]
Parker died at the age of seventy-four. Services were held at the First Baptist Church of Bastrop, of which he was a member. Along with his parents, Parker is interred at Memorial Park Cemetery in Bastrop.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Hugh Griffin Parker. findagrave.com. Retrieved on April 17, 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Obituary of Hugh Parker. Monroe News Star (November 5, 2007). Retrieved on April 17, 2020.
- ↑ Hugh G. Parker, Jr., Architect, Inc.. Architecture Week. Retrieved on April 18, 2015; material no longer on-line.
- ↑ University of Louisiana at Monroe Malone Stadium. fineartamerica.com (March 7, 2013). Retrieved on April 17, 2020.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Gordon E. Harvey (2007). Hugh G. Parker, Jr., in Historic Ouachita: An Illustrated History. San Antonio, Texas: Historical Publishing Network. ISBN 978-1893619708. Retrieved on April 17, 2020.
- ↑ Leach Construction Company: Ouachita Independent Bank. dlconst.com. Retrieved on April 17, 2020.
- ↑ TBA Studio: About Our Company. tbastudio.com. Retrieved on April 18, 2015; material no longer accessible on-line.
