At an early age Dick Parks became fascinated with birds and gradually taught himself to convey his deep affection for them by painting enchanting water colors.
Five years ago, at the presentation of a large collection of Parks’ bird paintings to a University of Georgia special collections library, Bob Sargent, then president of the Georgia Ornithological Society (GOS), paid tribute to Parks.
“If you’ve never truly gazed at a bird before,” he said, “you might find that when you look at one of Dick’s paintings, you will feel as though someone has just made clear to you a poem you never previously understood.
“If you’re like me and you have looked, I mean truly looked, at thousands of birds,” he went on, “then each time you look at Dick’s paintings you are reminded anew why you fell in love with birds.”
The current GOS president, Steve Holzman of North High Shoals, Ga., said, “Our society has lost the last of its charter members. Dick, along with a handful of others, had the foresight back in 1936 to help create an organization to understand, appreciate and protect Georgia’s bird life. Through his art, Dick helped instill in many of us a love of wild birds and a desire to assure their continued survival for generations to come.”
Richard A. Parks, 92, of Atlanta died Dec. 14 of respiratory failure at Sunrise Senior Living Community, Decatur. His funeral is 10 a.m. Monday at H.M. Patterson & Sons, Oglethorpe Hill.
In a July 29, 1973, article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Sunday magazine, Parks said he knew at age 15 that he wanted to devote himself to illustrating the wondrous variety of birds.
A Georgia Tech graduate, Parks was a full-time architect for more than 20 years. After his sons finished college and his wife and he divorced, he chose a modest life, taking architectural jobs periodically to support himself while he concentrated on painting birds, according to his son, Dave Parks of Atlanta.
The senior Parks painted bird illustrations for books such as “Alabama Birds” and “Birds of Colorado,” plus covers and story illustrations for numerous magazines. His paintings were displayed in galleries throughout the South, Midwest and Northeast.
While Parks strove to get right every detail of his bird subjects and their preferred habitats, he thought it was equally essential to capture the personalities of differing species. To do that, he carefully studied their characteristic poses and expressions.
Only late in his career did he raise prices for his much-prized paintings, his son said. Joking about his nearly equal interest in trees and flowers, Dick Parks once said, “I’m interested in anything you can’t make a living at.”
A longtime friend, John Swiderski of Valdosta, said many who pursue the birding hobby chase after birds to build lists of species, hoping to see a particular bird well enough to feel confident about its identification and then move on.
“In his quiet way, Dick encouraged us instead to take the time to really look at the bird and to notice its characteristic movements, the foods it eats and the habitat it selects,” Swiderski said.
“For a man of modest means, Dick was extraordinarily generous,” Swiderski added. “He is perhaps best known for his painting titled, ‘Brown Thrasher and Cherokee Rose,’ which he gave at no charge to the Atlanta Audubon Society so it could have prints of it made for a fundraiser. Later the original was given to then-Gov. Jimmy Carter, and it still hangs in the governor’s mansion.”
Also surviving are two other sons, Richard Parks of Snellville and Paul Parks of Acworth, four grandchildren and five step-grandchildren.
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