Ross Clayton Parr

PARR, Ross Clayton US Diplomat and China Watcher
Of Plainwell On April 29, 2007, Ross Clayton Parr, former Naval Officer and US Diplomat died from complications of a stroke at the home of his daughter in Great Falls, VA. He was 81. Mr. Parr was born September 5, 1925, in Kalamazoo, MI. Mr. Parr always claimed that the driving force behind his joining the Navy in World War II was the fact that he had never seen the ocean. He served in the Philippines during and after the war after which he returned to Michigan State University where he completed his Bachelors degree in March 1948. Two months later, in May 1948, he married the former Mary Bestervelt, who was to accompany him on his travels throughout Asia around the world for the next 49 years. Following his graduation, Mr. Parr worked as a free-lance writer for various journals and local newspapers in southwest Michigan to enable him, with his GI bill, to continue his studies. In June 1951, Mr. Parr completed his Masters Degree in American Literature and successfully defended his thesis, ? The Sea Side Of James Fenimore Cooper?. Shortly thereafter, he was recalled to the Navy where he served in Korea and Japan in a Special Operations Group based out of Yokohama. Then Lt. Commander Parr ran troop ships moving US soldiers from Japan to Korea. After 19 months in the Korean War, Mr. Parr returned to Michigan, where he took the Foreign Service Exam. In October 1957, he was posted to Paris for Consular and language training. Having developed a fascination with China as a young man, Mr. Parr requested admission to the State Department?s two year Chinese language training program and was posted to the Foreign Service Language Institute in Taichung, Taiwan in 1962. In 1963, the Parr family was posted to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which was beginning to experience some of the overflow conflict of the Vietnam War. In early 1964 after attacks on the USIS library and US Embassy, dependents began to be evacuated from Phnom Penh. While most went back to the US or to the Philippines, the Parr family now including four small children gained the distinction of being the only family to be evacuated into Saigon, to which Mr. Parr had just received orders. The family lived in Cholon, the Chinese area of the city, until their second evacuation, to Bangkok, Thailand, in the spring of 1965. Mr. Parr remained as a Political-Military officer at the Embassy in Saigon until the summer of 1966. From 1966 to 1970, Mr. Parr served in the China Mainland section of the American Consulate Hong Kong, BCC. This involved synthesizing open source written and audio reporting, defector and refugee debriefings and other information in an ongoing effort to understand that country, which remained largely closed to the West until President Nixon?s trip to Beijing in 1971. From 1970 until 1974, Mr. Parr worked at the State Department in Washington, DC. In 1974, he was posted to the Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked on economic issues such as the Law of the Sea. His final tour was as Economic Counselor at the Embassy in Algiers, where he and his wife sailed in the Mediterranean and learned to love travelling through the desert. The Parrs retired in 1983 and continued to travel around the US, Mexico and Europe. Mr. Parr was a sportsman throughout his life ? from softball in Taiwan the Paper Tigers to the sailboats he and Mrs. Parr owned in Hong Kong and the Mediterranean. In addition, he was an inveterate explorer; some of his favorite places included Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Ghardaia and Timgad in Algeria and Plainwell, Michigan. His wife of 49 years, Mary, died of breast cancer in September 1997. Mr. Parr?s survivors include his second wife, Elizabeth Brown Parr, whom he married in 2004. He is also survived by his grandchildren, Jessie Carr, J. Conrad Ellis and Neal and Jack Kelly, in all of whom he took the greatest pride. In addition, he is survived by his four children and their spouses, Devon Matt Ellis; Mary Richard Kelly; Marion Parr Scott Carr and Ross Parr and by an extended and loving family. Mr. Parr will be buried in a family ceremony at Ft. Custer on Monday, May 7. All friends and family are invited to a gathering at the cottage on Beech Island on Sunday, May 6, from noon to 3. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that contributions be made to the Salvation Army, Hospice, or the charity of your choice.