James Gordon Parr (May 26, 1927 – April 5, 2000) was an English-Canadian academic, broadcaster and provincial civil servant in the province of Ontario, Canada.
[1] Parr was an engineer by training specializing in metallurgy and he once hosted a programme on CBC Radio called The Mad Metallurgist aimed at popularizing the discipline.
[1] In addition to writing poetry, Parr composed selections for the piano and wrote operettas that were performed at the Toronto Arts & Letters Club.
Two years before his untimely death, Parr produced a CD, "When Music Sounds" , consisting solely of his own songs, sung by Canadian tenor James Leatch accompanied by pianist Dona Jean Clary.
In 1979, he was appointed chairman of TVOntario during which time he unsuccessfully sought a license for the network from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to launch a national children's channel.