San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Museum chief oversaw major projects
When Harry S. Parker III moved to San Francisco in 1987 to assume the directorship of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, he had recently completed a major building project as director of the Dallas Museum of Art in 1984. Following the Dallas museum’s ambitious relocation to the city’s downtown in a new building by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, his first orders of business in San Francisco were a bold reorganization of the programmatic priorities at the de Young Museum and Legion of Honor, as well as creating a new acquisition emphasis on 20th century and contemporary art.
Just two years after that profound undertaking, the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Bay Area on Oct. 17, 1989. Parker became a crisis leader for the museums, overseeing two more enormous construction projects: the renovation and restoration of the Legion of Honor, and the building of a new de Young after both suffered significant damage. The projects took years to complete after encountering logistical, financial and political obstacles. But ultimately, Parker’s work changed the face of San Francisco’s art and museum
worlds.
Parker died Jan. 13 at his home in Fishers Island, N.Y., after a short battle with heart disease. He was 84 years old.
“Museum directors are up against challenges of a myriad of types, but it always seemed like building a new museum was
among the greatest,” Parker’s son Thomas told the Chronicle. “Dad accomplished it three times, and the de Young was the toughest one.”
The Legion of Honor reopened in November 1995 with a full seismic and building systems upgrade, a 35,000-squarefoot
expansion of the galleries and the addition of a glass pyramid to the Court of Honor at the museum’s entrance. The building of the new de Young Museum was completed in October 2005 and, according to the former FAMSF president Dede Wilsey, it was a race to the finish.
“We ended up opening the de Young on Oct. 15, which was the same day that the Egyptian show ‘Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh’ was arriving,” said Wilsey, who also chaired the campaign to build the new museum. “Harry and I were just looking at each other to say, ‘It’s OK,’ and we kept the museum open for 24 hours a day for a couple of days to make it happen. He was adventurous, very intellectual, had a great sense of humor and was a wonderful leader. Working and traveling with him over those years was always a pleasure.”
Thomas Parker said that it was his father’s optimism that kept him going through more than a decade of delays on the project, and his belief that ultimately, a new museum in Golden Gate Park would benefit the region.
“He was ambitious, but not for any kind of personal aggrandizement,” Parker said. “He believed in the role of the museum in the community, the education behind it and that striving for cultural excellence could put it on the world map. Communities would only be as good as their institutions, so why not strive for the best?”
The new de Young Museum,
designed by Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, is considered a jewel of Bay Area museums. But a month after the 2005 reopening, on the heels of one of his greatest professional triumphs, Parker retired from his position.
“I felt I had accomplished what I had set out to do,” Parker said in a 2015 interview with the Chronicle. “I had opened the door for a new level of museum.”
Although he retired from the museum world, he didn’t lose his desire to serve the community and was a member of the Fishers Island Ferry Commission for three years. He and his wife, Ellen, also continued to collect art, primarily from emerging and regional artists, some of whom became acclaimed later in their careers.
Throughout a career in museums that spanned more than 40 years, Parker was also known for his pioneering work bringing education departments into museums. And years ahead of recent conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion, Parker made these issues and democratizing the visual arts a key priority.
“Harry Parker rightly has been praised for directing the renovation of the historic Legion of Honor, and the building of the new de Young by world-class architects,” said Timothy Anglin Burgard, curator in charge of American art at FAMSF, who was hired by Parker in 1996. “But he also deserves credit for embracing and supporting multiculturalism in the museums’ exhibitions, collections and programs long before most American museums were prioritizing these issues.”
In a statement to the Chronicle, FAMSF spokesperson Helena Nordstrom said that of the more than 23,000 artworks that entered FAMSF’s collection during
Parker’s time with the museums, many were acquired to expand the arts of the Americas, Africa and Oceania collections, part of his commitment “to expanding the diversity of the collection and representing world cultures.”
Harry Solomon Parker III was born in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Dec. 23, 1939, to Harry S. Parker Jr., a co-founder of an airline company, and Catherine Baillie. Parker was the eldest of four children and, following his parents’ divorce, the stepson of Clarence E. Knapp. He was a graduate of the prestigious Hotchkiss School in Lakeview, Conn., received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1961 and earned a master’s from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts in 1964.
In 1963, at age 24, Parker was recruited by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s director James Rorimer to be his administrative
assistant. In 1967, under director Thomas Hoving, Parker became the Met’s vice chairman of education.
“He really felt that educating the public was part of the role of the institution,” Thomas Parker said. “How are you going to get kids from the community to come and engage with it if you’re not going to reach out to their schools and start programs that are introducing people to the arts?”
In its statement, FAMSF said that Parker not only expanded the depth and breadth of FAMSF’s educational offerings, but drew “national attention and acclaim for the Museums’ innovative programs and establishing the de Young, in particular, as a major center for art education.” Also under Parker’s leadership, in 1996, FAMSF launched the website www.thinker.org, at the time one of the largest online museum image databases in the
world.
In 1974, Parker became director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, which was later renamed the Dallas Museum of Art. At age 33, he was among the youngest art museum directors in America. During his 13 years at the institution he garnered the support of local philanthropists for the construction of a new building and also the expansion of the museum’s collection and staff. With an increased endowment and higher attendance, the new museum helped form the Dallas Arts District, now the largest urban arts district in the country.
Thomas Parker said his father was proud of the relationships he formed with Bay Area artists during his tenure. These included Ruth Asawa, who at the time was more well known as an arts education advocate in spite of decades of creating her now acclaimed hanging wire sculptures, public fountains and other work. It was Parker who appointed Asawa to the FAMSF board of trustees, a role she held from 1989 to 1997. The Ruth Asawa estate said the two worked closely together, especially on the gift of 15 of her hanging sculptures that are on permanent view in the lobby of the Hamon Observation Tower in the de Young.
“Mr. Parker was an exceptional leader of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for decades and a tremendous advocate for the arts and artists here in San Francisco,” the estate said in a statement to the Chronicle. Parker “helped propel Asawa from a California sculptor of note to an internationally recognized artist.”
Gallerist Catherine Clark said that Parker’s support of the local gallery scene was also meaningful, especially for newer and emerging galleries.
“When Harry started coming to my gallery and being genuinely interested in what I was showing, it was hugely encouraging,” Clark said. “He deepened the museums’ investment in contemporary art, and the museums are continuing to build on that legacy.”
Parker was also president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and vice president of the American Association of Museums, now the American Alliance of Museums.
Parker is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ellen Parker, whom Thomas Parker and Wilsey said was seen by board chairs as an important partner in her husband’s work; his sisters, Cynthia Stern and Virginia Cargill; his children Thomas, Samuel Parker, Elizabeth Day Waters and Catherine Hyotte; and 10 grandchildren.
A memorial service is planned for this summer on New York’s Fishers Island.