Former faculty member Dr. Joseph Parker Jr. dies

Dr. Joseph Parker

Dr. Joseph C. Parker Jr. passed away May 3 at the age of 81. His survivors include Dr. John Parker, M.D. ’93, with whom he practiced the last 10 years of his career.

From 1986 to 1992, he served as professor and chairman in the Department of Pathology for the UMKC School of Medicine and Truman Medical Center. He also served on the Board of Directors at Truman Medical Center from 1989 to 1992.

After leaving UMKC, he was the chairman of pathology at the University of Louisville for many years. He then was director of Louisville’s pathology residency program until he retired in 2014. He co-wrote more than 130 journal articles, 95 abstracts and 10 book chapters, often with his son. Dr. John Parker said his father’s “knowledge and wisdom will live on in the hundreds of students and residents he enjoyed teaching over his long medical career.”