Parker, Alan and Beatrice Archives

Biographical Note

Natives of Nebraska, Alan Parker (1916-1993), an artist and a collector, and Beatrice Ford Parker (1918-1996), a teacher, relocated to Carmel Highlands, California in 1950. Living in their self-designed Carmel home over 30 years, the couple ultimately retired to Medford, Oregon in 1987.

The Parkers graduated from the University of Nebraska in the late 1930's. Alan Parker received a degree in Fine Arts (1937), and was hired as an art director for a chain department store until the beginning of WWII. Like so many men of that period, Alan Parker was drafted into the Navy in 1943. He received basic training in USNR Midshipman School in Chicago, and later was stationed off the Atlantic Coast in Florida as a lieutenant commanding a coastal defense patrol vessel. After military service, the couple returned to Hasting, Nebraska for two years, during which time Mr. Parker compiled a bibliography of James Joyce's writings. The volume was published by F.W. Faxon Co (1948) under a title James Joyce: a bibliography of his writings .

In Carmel, Alan Parker was actively engaged in arts. Recognized for his abstract-geometric style, he exhibited his paintings and sculptures locally in Monterey and Santa Cruz as well as Santa Barbara and Nebraska. His works have also been displayed in a group exhibits at the Witney Museum of Art in New York, the Denver Art Museum, and the San Francisco Art Museum. His main commissions included murals for the University of Nebraska, and both the Salinas County Juvenile Hall & Courthouse.

In addition to painting, he worked as an architectural designer-draftsman and as a color consultant. In the early 1970's, he also taught painting and aesthetics at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Mrs. Parker, a teacher specialized in reading techniques and working with children with learning disabilities, taught in Monterey Peninsula Unified School District until her retirement in 1982. During her career she published widely in educational journals.

From the guide to the Alan and Beatrice Parker Collection, 1922-1969, (University of California, Santa Cruz. University Library. Special Collections and Archives)