BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Kermit Carlyle Parsons was born on July 15, 1927, in Cleveland, Ohio.
He earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Miami University in Ohio in
1951 and a Master of Regional Planning degree from Cornell University in 1953.
He was a recipient of a University Fellowship in Architecture at Cornell in
1951-1952 and 1952-1953. After earning his degree from Cornell, he worked as a
city planner for the Cleveland (Ohio) City Planning Commission and as a city
planner for the Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority. Parsons joined the
Cornell faculty in 1957. He was appointed associate professor in 1960 and
professor in 1965. In 1971 he was named dean of the College of Architecture,
Art and Planning and served until 1980. He returned to teaching for several
years until 1985 when he became the director of the Cornell-in-Washington
program, a position he held until 1988. Parsons retired from the University in
1999. During his career he had served as a consultant on city and university
planning projects in New York State and elsewhere. He authored books such as
Writings of Clarence S. Stein: Architect of the Planned
Community and
The Cornell Campus: A History of its Planning and
Development. He was a co-author of
An Annotated Bibliography on University Planning and
Development and, with David Schuyler, he edited the book
From Garden City to Green City: The Legacy of Ebenezer
Howard. Parsons died on December 9, 1999.
