In 1948, he attend Phillips Academy Andover before receiving his bachelor of arts degree from Yale University in 1952.
With the strong backing of H. J. Heinz II and Mellon Bank, the Penguins were sold to the Donald Parsons Group.
Penguins' general manager Jack Riley later recalled that Parsons picked him up in a private jet to travel to the 1970 NHL Draft held in Montreal, Quebec.
[3] On May 15, 1970, the Penguins' star rookie Michel Briere was involved a fatal car accident that would later take his life a year later.
Briere remained in a twilight condition, between consciousness and unconsciousness for close to a year and underwent four operations before dying of his injuries on April 13, 1971, at the age of 21.
He died on Monday, July 22, 2012, at the Arden Courts Assisted Living, located in West Palm Beach, of Alzheimer's disease.