James Russell Parsons Jr. (February 20, 1861 – December 5, 1905) was an American educator, author, and diplomat who served as consul general in Mexico City.
Among his siblings were Willard Pope Parsons (who married Lillian Tompkins),[2] and Hinsdill Parsons, the general counsel for General Electric who also died in an automobile accident (he married Jessie Mary Burchard, a sister of Anson Wood Burchard).
[1] From 1882 to 1883, he served as private secretary to Bishop John Williams of Connecticut,[1] before he became School Commissioner of the First District, Rensselaer County from 1884 to 1887.
At the same time, he was created Inspector of Teachers' Training Classes under the New York State Department of Public Instruction.
[7] In 1905, not long after the family had moved from Elk Nest, Albany, to Mexico City, he was killed when his carriage collided with a streetcar.