Robert L. Parker, Sr.
Robert L. Parker, Sr.
“The many in Washington who have long benefited from Mr. Parker’s warm friendship and sage advice have come to regard him as a particularly distinguished business statesman.”
Biography
Oklahoma native Robert L. Parker, Sr., graduated from Culver Military Academy and the University of Texas with a degree in petroleum engineering. He became chairman and CEO of Parker Drilling Company in 1954 when he matched the highest of five bids for his father’s company. He took the company public in 1969 and became an unofficial adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Energy.
In 1981 he was the director of a commission to evaluate the U.S. Department of Energy and energy regulation. Parker also has served as chairman of the board of Saint Francis Hospital and Telecommunications Systems, Inc., and served as a director of many organizations including Bank of Oklahoma and the National Petroleum Council. He was named Outstanding Oil Man of the Year in 1982 and was elected to the University of Tulsa Hall of Fame in 1971.
Fun fact
Robert Parker, Sr., gained international recognition in the mid-1960s for his development of the “heli-hoist rig,” in which the rig is broken down into parts and transported by helicopter to a drilling site and then reassembled. He was also the World Open Skeet Champion at the age of 15 and is a member of the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame.
Oklahoma connections
Parker was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.