Franklin Parker Papers

Franklin Parker was born to Jacob Zaranick and Ethel Serebrenick in New York on June 2, 1921. He graduated from Berea College with a B.A., English, in 1949, from the University of Illinois with a Masters of Library Science in 1950, and from George Peabody College in Nashville, TN, with an Ed.D. in Social Foundations of Education in 1956. Franklin’s doctoral dissertation was on George Peabody. He spent many months reading documents on George Peabody in libraries in Nashville, Washington, DC; Baltimore; New York City; Boston; Salem, Massachusetts; and London, England. In London, Parker read George Peabody-related papers at Peabody’s banking firm, the British Library, University of London Library, and at Windsor Castle. Parker’s dissertation was later published by Vanderbilt University Press as George Peabody, a Biography, in 1971; it was also updated and republished with 12 illustrations in 1995 on the 200th anniversary of George Peabody’s birth. Parker spent over forty years teaching at colleges and universities around the United States, including Western Carolina University (1989-1994); Northern Arizona State University (Flagstaff) (1986-1989); West Virginia University (1968-1986 and Emeritus in 1986); University of Oklahoma (1964-1968); University of Texas (1957-1964) and State University of New York at New Paltz (1956-1957). He also worked as a librarian at George Peabody College for Teachers (1955-1956); Belmont University (1952-1954); and Ferrum College (1950-1952). Parker retired in 1994. He died in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, on December 16, 2023.