FAMSF Director Harry S. Parker III Retires

12/1/2005

Harry S. Parker III, Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, will retire from his position on December 31, 2005. During his 18-year tenure as FAMSF Director, Mr. Parker has contributed significantly to the growth and enhancement of both the de Young and the Legion of Honor through new building and expansion projects, fundraising and acquisitions, and innovative educational programming; and by reorganizing and dramatically increasing the museums’ respective collections. Recently, he oversaw the planning and realization of the new de Young, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. The museum opened to great critical and public acclaim on October 15, 2005. From 1987 to 1995, Mr. Parker also oversaw the restoration, expansion, and seismic upgrade of the Legion of Honor.

Prior to his appointment at the FAMSF, Mr. Parker served as Director of the Dallas Museum of Art from 1974 to 1987. He is credited with elevating the Dallas Museum to national prominence by moving it from its Fair Park location to a $50 million new building, triggering the revitalization of Dallas’s downtown Arts District. The current Dallas Museum of Art, recognized as one of the first modern large-scale museum expansion projects in the country, has served as a model for the concept of culture as a catalyst for urban renewal and growth. Before leading the Dallas Museum of Art, Mr. Parker spent 10 years at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where he was Vice Director for Education.

Mr. Parker has received numerous awards for his work, including the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Art et Lettres and a Martin Luther King Special Appreciation Award. He is a past president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (1980 – 1981) and was Vice President of the American Association of Museums. He is a trustee emeritus of the San Francisco Art Institute and a member of the Century Association in New York and the Bohemian Club in San Francisco.

Mr. Parker graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Harvard College. He studied on a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Utrecht and was awarded an M.A. by the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University.

He will be succeeded by John E. Buchanan, Jr., effective February 1, 2006.