[5] Parks was awarded a $4,000 scholarship for winning an oratory contest in high school, and this monetary prize contributed to his college education when he enrolled at Purdue University in 1941.

[6][7] In 1942, Parks was drafted into the United States Army and was subsequently sent to Europe as a combat engineer in 1943 during World War II, where he served until 1945.

[12] With the conclusion of his Western European military campaigns, Parks was eventually relocated to the Pacific South to assist in the liberation of the Philippines.

[15] Notable commissions for the firm included the Methuen Junior High School, the Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall, and a major hospital in Philadelphia, amongst others.

While still with his architectural firm, Parks traveled to regions of West Africa in 1967, including Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Nigeria, to assist in housing projects.

Parks formed a council that would frequently report back to Governor Dukakis amidst a host of issues arising from the busing programs.

Parks was able to identify the growing economic issues found within the selected areas the program was in effect, noting that the unemployment rate was four times that of metropolitan Boston.

[20] Parks attributed these economic downfalls to the funding cuts to the program and advocated for it to remain in effect amidst several discussions of its termination.

A statistical analysis conducted by Parks and his colleagues estimated that continued cuts to funding and termination of the program would cause more than $51 million in economic damage and a loss of 5,000 jobs.

[20] The program used federal funding of approximately $20 million to provide aid to 60,000 individuals in Dorchester, Jamaica Plain, and Roxbury, the latter of which was subject to a march in 1963 to protest segregation in Boston schools prior to Parks's appointment as Chairman.

Furthermore, they found that school administrators preached separate but equal quality of education for black and white students, despite evidence insisting on the opposite.