Shortly after my father’s death in 1993, and during the next six years serving with the Park Foundation, I began to pick up where my father left off. As I mentioned earlier, my father said “give your time or your money, but never both.” Unfortunately I did not heed his advice, and I have a full plate on both counts.
Pops had become a member of the Board of Advisors of The University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1989. In 1994, I was named a member of the board. In October 2005 I received a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University, and in 2011 was inducted into the North Carolina Advertising Hall of Fame.
My father had been director of the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, from 1984 until his death, serving on the audit and investment committees. In 1995, at the suggestion of my mother, I joined the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Inc. as a director. I served as a member of the investment, finance and audit committees, and from 2002 to 2007 then as vice-chairman of the Institute. In that capacity, I also served as chairman of the compensation committee, a member of the executive committee, and in 2004, on the selection committee for the new president of the Institute.
My father became a member of the Advisory Council of the Samuel C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University in 1977. In 1996 I was named to the Advisory Council of the Johnson Graduate School of Management. In November 2004, Bob Swieringa, dean of the Johnson School, wrote, “Like your father before you, your voice of reason and clarity of thought continues to drive the opinions of others while galvanizing our efforts to move the school to new heights and accomplishments. The Johnson School would not resemble the top-ten school it is without your years of lasting commitment and contribution. When I think of the handful of great leaders who have left a lifetime imprint upon this institution’s very being, you are in the forefront of that group.”
In 2004 I was the thirteenth alumnus to be inducted into the School’s Hall of Honor. Conceived in 1979, it is the highest form of recognition that can be rendered by the dean on behalf of the Johnson School community. As part of his introduction to the ceremony, Dean Robert Swieringa quoted an ancient Chinese proverb before honoring me with a kind tribute: If you want 1 year of prosperity, grow grain. If you want 10 years of prosperity, grow trees. If you want 100 years of prosperity, grow people.
Roy Park grows people. He invests in individuals with leadership qualities, professional and personal life accomplishments, academic achievements, and commitments to community service. The Park Leadership Fellows Program is among the richest leadership development experiences in any top business school both in scope and impact. Two hundred and twenty-four students have benefited from his investments. Roy grows people! His investments change lives. And he is looking forward to 100 years of prosperity.
My father was a trustee of Ithaca College, then chairman of the board. After being approached for a trustee spot, as I said, I asked the chairman of the Board of Trustees to consider my sister for this spot instead. As far as my father’s extensive involvement at North Carolina State, I felt comfortable at the time having another trustee representing this Park Foundation core grant.
That left Cornell University, where my father’s ties began back in the 1950s when he engaged Cornell to research American eating habits in conjunction with the launch of his Duncan Hines food line. In 1999, I was elected a trustee of Cornell University, serving on the committees on governmental relations, alumni affairs and development and trustee-community communications. In mid-2007 I was elected a trustee emeritus and Cornell Presidential Councillor, the highest honor the Board of Trustees can bestow.