Reverend Josiah Lamberson Parrish (January 14, 1806 – May 31, 1895) was an American missionary in the Pacific Northwest and trustee of the Oregon Institute at its founding.

A native of New York, he also participated in the Champoeg Meetings that led to the formation of the Provisional Government of Oregon in 1843.

[1] Parrish and around 50 others sailed on the ship Lausanne around Cape Horn in South America to the Columbia River and on to Oregon City in what has been called the Great Reinforcement of the Methodist Mission.

During the two years of on and off meetings he helped to build the Star of Oregon that was sailed to California by a crew led by Joseph Gale.

On February 1, 1842, Parrish was selected as a trustee to the new Oregon Institute, a school established to teach the children of the missionaries that later became Willamette University.

[1] In 1869, his wife, Elizabeth Parrish, donated land to help create the Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem, Oregon, with Josiah as one of the incorporators.

[1] Married in Portland, the couple had two children, Gertrude Grace and Josephine Leilani before Jane, known as Jennie, died in 1887.