Edward Parkes

British academic (1926–2019) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Edward Walter Parkes DL FREng[1] (19 May 1926 – 25 September 2019) was Vice-Chancellor of City University London from 1974 to 1978 and of the University of Leeds from 1983 to 1991.

Life

Parkes was born in 1926.[2]

Parkes attended King Edward's School, Birmingham, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he obtained a first class degree in mechanical engineering.[3]

Other posts included Head of the Department of Engineering at Leicester University in the 1960s[4] and Chairman of the UK University Grants Committee in the early 1980s. From 1989 to 1991 he was Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals. He was also appointed a Fellow[1] of the Royal Academy of Engineering[1] in 1982.

Edward and Margaret Parkes commissioned Leicester based architect James Gowan to design them a holiday home on land they had bought above St David's Cathedral in Wales. The resulting Round House was listed after it was completed in 1967.[2]

Parkes was knighted in 1983.[5] There is a portrait in oils by Michael Noakes at City University.[6] Parkes died in September 2019 at the age of 93.[7]

Private life

He married the educationalist Margaret Parr[2] (1925-2007) and they had two children. Lady Parkes CBE died in 2007 having changed the UK's educational system to include Design and Technology.[4]

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.