North Carolina State University Soon after graduation, Roy H. Park became involved in reactivating the NC State Alumni Association. “It was slow going, and for the year 1932 the grand sum of all contributions totaled $901.50. Of course, this was during the Depression and dollars were hard to come by,” he said.
His first official post with North Carolina State after graduation came in 1937, when he was appointed to the Public Relations Committee of NCSU Alumni Association. He later became president of the association, and in this capacity, was a key figure in the creation and promotion of the “Nickels for Know-How” program. Through this program, North Carolina farmers could contribute $.05 on each ton of feed and fertilizer purchased to support agricultural research and education at the NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The program brought in a total income of over $17 million since 1951 and yielded as much as $500,000 annually.
When he was president of the NCSU Alumni Association in 1961, he also initiated the university’s most prestigious annual giving club, according to Al Lanier, the Alumni Association’s executive director. It was called the Chancellor’s Circle.
His principal address to the NCSU Development Council Meeting in 1970 was said to have set the tone for the University’s Development Program in the decade to come. During that address, my father demonstrated his faith in education. He warned that both “the radical fringes of youthful society and their counterparts” on the extreme right are endangering America’s free universities.
He noted: “The extreme left is operating through sit-ins, riots, and burnings. They rant for the irresponsible, illogical and ignorant goal of pulling down the towers of learning.” On the other extreme, he added: “Some of our older generation are almost as bad. These range from the type who always have cast a suspicious eye on free education and free expression to mossbacks who cling to the idea that anything new or different is an abomination in the eye of God and man. The radical right,” he observed, “presses for repressive legislation, while the young radicals clamor for no laws at all.”
Pops stressed that most of the current generation of students are constructive citizens who will make solid contributions to the state and nation. He urged business and educational leaders to retain their perspective “and to project to others our faith in the long-range progress we know will be made.”
My father became a trustee of NC State in 1977, and during his tenure until 1985 worked closely with the governor’s Commission on Literacy. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree by NC State in 1978, and that same year, on May 13, he gave State’s Eighty-ninth Annual Commencement address.
In his “Call for a New Coalition,” he spoke of the need for land-grant and state universities to enlarge their national program of support for public universities. “The time has come,” he said, “for business and industry and the land-grant colleges and state universities throughout the country to form a new coalition that can develop into a permanent alliance to protect themselves against big government, both national and state.
“The only way freedom of thought and learning can be carried on at the land-grant colleges and state universities in this great country of ours is through dollars given without strings or stipulations. Our college administration needs the flexibility that goes with unrestricted private funding. Unlike tax dollars that come with rules and ultimatums, the private dollars instead can provide the freedom necessary to nurture quality on the campus, and build faith on the part of the public. From this alliance, immense direct benefits will come to the nation and the economy of our state,” he said.
“Throughout the years this university has helped the economy and our people in many ways. For example, university research on plant disease has saved North Carolina’s tobacco industry on at least two occasions. It’s now a billion dollar industry for the State.
“Today we are waking up to the fact that the dollars from Washington come with strings attached. The mission has degenerated from general and applied research to the control of the academic standards for great and proud institutions, such as ours and our sister university at Chapel Hill. This may take a radical change in thinking of my fellow entrepreneurs and in the executive suites of North Carolina and the nation.
“I suggest the new alliance would be a natural alliance—one that flows naturally from the existing and growing links between the American business world and these great land-grant and state universities. Business and industry have received significant help from land-grant and state universities. Now business and industry must help finance them. Every business, large or small, benefits— so every business and industry should contribute,” he said.
In talking to the students, my father gave a lot of insight into himself. “I’ve had four careers—writer and editor—advertising and public relations—food marketing—and now, communications. When my work gets routine and becomes dull, I move on to another challenge,” he said. “If I have prospered, it has been a combination of luck and hard work…with luck the ingredient once in a while, and hard work, the rule every day. At sixty-five, I should be newly retired, but my work is too exciting. In communications I’m in the thick of what is going on in a fast-moving world…and I love it.”
He told students to “go out in the world and do the things that give you fulfillment. Above all, don’t get stuck in a job that is a bore or a drudgery. Involve yourself in a career that you enjoy so much that you never count the hours, and in a job that is so much fun that you look forward to going to work every morning.
“We must not be a tired, complacent nation, but a nation of eager explorers determined not to be outdone by the past but rather to emulate our forefathers by seeing that each generation continues to outdo the other in providing a better life, a better living, a better mind and a bigger heart,” he said.
In concluding his address, he said he could think of no greater honor for an old grad than “being asked back to make a commencement speech. This glorious university gave me a good start in my professional life. I am indebted to it and to the men and women who have made it the great institution that it is today.”
In calling attention to my father’s remarkable career and seemingly limitless energy and drive, the North Carolina State University Alumni News featured him on the cover of its August 1955 issue. It called him “a harnessed hurricane—not like Hazel, of course, but with enough force, appeal, and insight to team up with famous foodman, Duncan Hines, in a business venture now topping $50 million a year.” In 1971, he was described in this publication as “an executive with a restless mind and steel-trap memory.”
Cornell University In 1971, Pops cosponsored seminars for the Cornell University Department of Communication Arts through his company, and this continued throughout the 1971–1972 academic year. In this capacity, he spoke to the students on December 11, 1971, in an address entitled, CoMMuniCAtions MediA: More thAn A Business.
In 1976, when he spoke to the Cornell University Graduate School of Management about his time with Carolina Cotton and Duncan Hines, he said his experience in broadcast and newspaper taught him “the basics in print and communications that have never left me, and I learned work habits borne of a deliberate self-discipline that are unchanged today.”
He summed up his advice to the students on getting ahead in the business world, saying, “You might realize that in your new highly competitive business world, you will be lonely. Basically, you’ll have to be logical and unbiased in arriving at the right decisions. Your associates must realize that you are dedicated to the business.
Then there are the Durland Lectures, which my father helped create and fund, and which continue to be the Johnson School’s most prestigious business speaking event. Each year, the dean of the school invites a distinguished business leader to the campus to meet with students and faculty members and to deliver a major address. Income from the fund is used to conduct the lecture and support speaker programs.
When my father passed away, Cornell University Professor Emeritus William B. Ward said, “Park had a vision on the business world that is extremely unusual. He pulled himself up by his own bootstraps….It seems that he had the Midas Touch. Everything he touched turned to gold.”
And Gray Thoron, emeritus law professor and former dean of the Cornell University Law School, and his good friend, said, “We’ve lost a wonderful friend….He not only built a tremendous media empire, but he did it on his own. He had tremendous drive, he had tremendous energy and ability. He never boasted about it like [Donald] Trump or some of those other people like that. He was very low-key in talking about his accomplishments.”
Ithaca College At the dedication, Ithaca College president, James J. Whalen, said, “The Roy H. Park School of Communications is not only our first named school, but it is named in honor of a man whose service and commitment to this institution are exemplary in American higher education. Roy Park’s universally recognized leadership in the world of communications will henceforth and in perpetuity be associated with Ithaca College and its School of Communications.” After twenty years of service on the board, eleven as its chair
man, Pops became the board’s first chairman emeritus. But he continued to serve as a special adviser to the newly elected board under Chairman Herman E. “Skip” Muller, Jr., and to President James J. Whalen. In stepping down, Pops said, “It has been both a pleasure and a privilege to be a part of the Ithaca College community for so many years. Even as I concentrate more fully on my corporate activities, I look forward to continuing my service to the College in a new role. I am confident that under the continued leadership of my good friend and colleague James Whalen, and the able guidance of my esteemed vice chairman, Herman Muller, the course has been set for what will remain a strong, vibrant institution of higher education.”
President Whalen praised Park’s interest and involvement in the life of Ithaca College, noting that the role of board chairman is paramount to the success of any institution. “A president can only lead if those who hold the college in trust, and especially the chairman, are people of talent and strength and integrity,” said Whalen. “My chairman, Mr. Roy H. Park, is that and more. He is my friend. He is a man of substance and prominence, who has assisted Ithaca over the years with his kindness and generous attention, his strength, leadership, and his deep caring for our students. I want to express my appreciation for all that he has done and will continue to do for Ithaca in the years to come.”
In July 1991, Gray Thoron told Helen Mundell of the Ithaca Journal, “Ithaca College has been very lucky to have had him give them as much of his time and interest as he has. A lot of people think his only interest is business—and it’s not.”
In the same article, President Whalen said, “Roy had done so many wonderful things for Ithaca College I just can’t say enough about him. His trusteeship has been exemplary, especially his work as chairman of our board….He has been readily available to me. He’s brought wonderful people to our boardroom, to our classrooms, and lecture halls.
“In sum, he had consistently demonstrated the kind of genuine interest and support for the institute that few college presidents have an opportunity to enjoy.”
When my father passed away two years later, in 1993, Ithaca College history professor Paul McBride said, “We’ve lost a real friend. He’s been an extraordinary benefactor of the college…both in his business and his many contacts….If we needed something, background or expertise, Roy had some connection and he could call on those connections to benefit the college.”
He even surprised the superintendent for custodial services at Ithaca College, Richard Coulture, who said, “He was a much more funny and fun-loving person than I had anticipated.”