George Alexander Parks

Parks was born to James and Mary Leach (Ferguson) Parks on May 29, 1883, in Denver, Colorado. He was educated in public schools before graduating from the Colorado School of Mines in 1906. After graduation, he worked as a mining engineer in Canada, Mexico, and the Western United States before arriving in Alaska in 1907 as part of an engineering team tasked with making evaluations for a group of investors.{{cite book |last1=McMullin |first1=Thomas A. |last2=Walker |first2=David |title=Biographical Directory of American Territorial Governors |publisher=Meckler Publishing |location=Westport, CT |year=1984 |isbn=0-930466-11-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/biographicaldire0000mcmu/page/18 18–20] |url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldire0000mcmu/page/18 }}

File:George Alexander Parks in Camp c 1915.jpg

In 1908, Parks worked for the United States Land Office in Denver as a mineral examiner for two months before taking a similar position in Alaska. Following the American entry into World War I, he joined the Army Corps of Engineers.{{cite news |title=George A. Parks, 100; Was Alaska Governor |page=34 |newspaper=New York Times |date=May 13, 1984 }} Rising to the rank of captain by the war's end, he returned to the Land office after his military service.

In 1920, Parks was appointed Chief of the United States Land Office in Juneau. Four years later he was in Anchorage working as Assistant Supervisor of Surveys of Public Lands for Alaska. During his time with the land office, he traveled extensively throughout the territory, gaining an intimate knowledge of the geography and becoming acquainted with both the white and indigenous populations of Alaska.{{cite news |title='Real Alaskan' Chosen to Govern Territory |page=XX8 |newspaper=New York Times |date=March 8, 1925 }}

While President Warren G. Harding, Hubert Work, and Herbert Hoover were visiting Alaska, Parks was assigned as a tour guide for the dignitaries. The group was impressed by their guide's detailed knowledge of the territory. When President Calvin Coolidge was later looking for a new territorial governor, Work and Hoover, who by then were both members of the Presidential Cabinet, recommended Parks. Coolidge nominated Parks to be Governor of Alaska Territory on February 14, 1925, and the new governor took his oath of office on June 17, 1925.{{cite news |title=Parks is Nominated Governor of Alaska |page=2 |newspaper=New York Times |date=February 15, 1925 }}{{cite news |title=New Governor for Alaska |page=2 |newspaper=New York Times |date=June 18, 1925 }}

Transportation was a major issue for the territory during the Parks administration. To offset running deficits and reduced federal subsidies, rates for the Alaska Railroad were raised and a toll was implemented on the Richardson Highway. One area that saw an improvement however was air travel. In 1925 funds for landing fields was authorized by the territorial legislature. Two years later subsidized air travel between the Alaska Railroad and Seward Peninsula was initiated. Parks became an avid enthusiast of air travel, using it to inspect much of the territory in May and June 1929. The speed and increased mobility even allowed him to attend his niece's graduation in California.{{cite news |title=Governor Flies From Alaska |page=18 |newspaper=San Jose News |date=May 13, 1984 | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9VIiAAAAIBAJ&pg=6258,6586195}}

Much of Parks' term of office was largely uneventful. Among the issues he dealt with were the reduction in federal funding for the United States Geological Survey and elimination of the territory's agricultural experimentation stations. He also initiated a contest among school children to design a territorial flag.{{cite news |title=George Parks |page=A17 |newspaper=Toledo Blade |date=May 13, 1984 | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FQAaAAAAIBAJ&pg=6798,6018334 }}

Parks was reappointed for a second term by President Hoover on September 27, 1929.

{{cite news |title=Names Alaska Governor |page=4 |newspaper=New York Times |date=Sep 28, 1929 }} He left office on April 19, 1933, following the completion of his term.

After leaving the governor's office, Parks settled in Juneau and became District Cadastral Engineer of Alaska. He remained there until his retirement from the Bureau of Land Management in July 1948.{{cite news |title=Parks Quits Alaska Job |page=20 |newspaper=New York Times |date=July 4, 1948 }} After leaving government service, he worked for the R.J. Sommers Construction Company and became Vice-President of the First National Bank of Juneau.

Parks never married. During the mid-1970s, Parks was forced to leave his Juneau apartment and move into a nursing home. In 1975, the Parks Highway (Alaska Route 3) between Anchorage and Fairbanks, Alaska, was named in his honor.{{cite news |title=Parks Highway |page=4 |newspaper=Anchorage Daily News |date=July 16, 1975 | url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=oD8dAAAAIBAJ&pg=5027,1440414 }} Parks died on May 11, 1984, at the age of 100 in Juneau, Alaska.

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• [http://vilda.alaska.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/cdmg21&CISOPTR=2416&REC=13 Alaska's Digital Archives] – Photo from his 99th birthday party, held at Bartlett Memorial Hospital in Juneau on May 29, 1982. Jay Hammond (then governor of Alaska) and Dora M. Sweeney join Parks's niece in serving him birthday cake.

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| before=Scott Cordelle Bone

| title=Territorial Governor of Alaska

| years=1925–1933

| after=John Weir Troy

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{{Succession box|title=Earliest serving US governor | before=William H. McMaster | after=Alfred M. Landon | years=1968–1984}}

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Category:1883 births

Category:1984 deaths

Category:Alaska Republicans

Category:American Disciples of Christ

Category:American mining engineers

Category:Burials at Evergreen Cemetery (Juneau, Alaska)

Category:Governors of Alaska Territory

Category:American men centenarians

Category:Politicians from Denver

Category:20th-century Alaska politicians