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Local figure

John A. Parker

John A. Parker was hired by the University of North Carolina in 1945 to start a Department of City and Regional Planning in 1946, and he led the department until he retired in 1974. He went on advising its chairmen and alumni for about twenty-five years and died in Chapel Hill in 2001.

Source: UNC Department of City and Regional Planning: Edward J. Kaiser and Karla Rosenberg, The School That Jack Built (2013), p. 7

1909–2001 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 indexed work is connected with this person, and the index includes one work by John A. Parker.

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Indexed works

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By John A. Parker

Report to the Division of Exchange of Persons, Department of State, Washington, D.C., on the Trainee Program in City Planning : March 8 to June 30, 1950

Parker, John A., 1909-2001; Chapin, F. Stuart, Jr. (Francis Stuart), 1916-2016; University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Department of City and Regional Planning; United States. Department of State. Division of Exchange of Persons · 1950

John A. Parker and F. Stuart Chapin, Jr. reported to the State Department's Division of Exchange of Persons on a training program that brought eleven German citizens to the United States to study city planning between 8 March and 30 June 1950. The typescript carries a letter of transmittal, short evaluations of each participant, travel itineraries to the cities studied, and Chapin's notes on planning methods.

UNC

About John A. Parker

The school that Jack built : city and regional planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1945-2012

Kaiser, Edward J. (Edward John) · 2013

Edward J. Kaiser's history of the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1945 to 2012, published by the department in 2013. The title nods to John A. Parker, 1909 to 2001, who figures in the book. One hundred eighty-six pages with illustrations and portraits at 28 cm.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Parker, John A., 1909-2001.

UNC NC State CH Historical Society

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. John A. Parker arrives and UNC's planning program begins classes John A. Parker, hired in 1945 to found a Department of City and Regional Planning, arrived in Chapel Hill in September 1946, and classes began that fall with four students. The department's first office was in the Alumni Building, shared with the Institute for Research in Social Science.Search the index · UNC Department of City and Regional Planning: Edward J. Kaiser and Karla Rosenberg, The School That Jack Built (2013), pp. 19-20
  2. Architect James Webb moves to Chapel Hill to help start UNC's planning program James Webb, an architect and planner trained at Berkeley and MIT who had worked for William Wurster, came to Chapel Hill in 1947 to help John Parker set up the university's program in city and regional planning. He taught there until 1975 and kept a private practice that brought San Francisco Bay area modernism to the town. People: James M. Webb, John A. ParkerSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 80
  3. The Junior Service League canvasses the Chapel Hill school district for a census About 300 volunteers under some 45 captains went house to house through Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the county areas that send children to Chapel Hill High School, in the town's first amateur census. The league of young women ran it under the university's Planning Department, with graduate student Eric Hill as supervisor and Mayor Robert W. Madry chairing the advisory committee. People: John A. Parker, Robert W. MadrySearch the index · Junior Service League of Chapel Hill, Population Survey and School Census of the Chapel Hill School Attendance District (1948), scan p. 3
  4. The planning department moves into New East Parker won space on the first two floors of New East, vacated when the geology department moved to Mitchell Hall, and the Department of City and Regional Planning left the Alumni Building for it in 1964. In 1966 he secured an $82,000 National Science Foundation grant toward renovating the building.Search the index · UNC Department of City and Regional Planning: Edward J. Kaiser and Karla Rosenberg, The School That Jack Built (2013), p. 69
  5. John A. Parker retires as head of the planning department Parker retired in 1974 at sixty-five after leading the Department of City and Regional Planning since its start. More than a hundred academics, alumni and friends met at a conference in Chapel Hill that spring to mark the occasion, with a retirement banquet in May 1974.Search the index · UNC Department of City and Regional Planning: Edward J. Kaiser and Karla Rosenberg, The School That Jack Built (2013), pp. 86-87

Places in this person’s story

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for John A. Parker Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
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