[2] In 1939, he earned a BS from Illinois College and in 1943 graduated from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
[3] During World War II, Parks served as a medical officer on destroyers in the United States Navy,[2] including the USS Gamble and USS Terror during the battle of Iwo Jima.
[4] Parks studied under the guidance of Frank D. Costenbader, the first ophthalmologist to dedicate his practice solely to the care of children.
[6] This evolved from the rotation of Heed Fellowship ophthalmologists who had trained with Costenbader for many years.
Dr. Kenneth Wright, a former Parks fellow and current director of Pediatric Ophthalmology Research and Education at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, published a tribute to Dr.