Harry Parker, past president of the Western District and a highly-respected ITE member in Southern California passed away on March 6, 2013.

Harry was born on February 12, 1925 in Vienna, Austria. He once said that he knew at a very early age that transportation was in his future, since at the age of six he was playing with trains. By the age of eight he graduated to drawing sketches of intersections. However, at the age of 14 his family left Vienna as the dark clouds of World War II and the impending Holocaust were on the horizon. They left Vienna, waited in Italy and left for the United States just before the War broke out in Europe.

His family settled in the Detroit area. After completing high school he valiantly served the United States Army in the European Theater where he helped to defeat Hitler’s army. Prior to his combat duties he was sent to Southern California for training and it didn’t take him long to contrast the winter weather differences between Detroit and Los Angeles. After the War he returned to Southern California to attend UCLA and USC, where he received degrees in civil engineering and public administration.

While in college he knew that he wanted to be a traffic engineer. The Los Angeles County Road Department offered him a job during his junior year and he accepted it at the tempting salary of $ 288 per month. The traffic engineering staff of which he was a part was a small unit, and he helped to guide its evolution and professional development over a 29-year period. He helped to install one of the first left-turn lanes in the County on Imperial Highway at Old River School Road. In the mid-1950’s he developed new funding for intersection operational improvements at a time when traffic operations was only an after-thought to installation and maintenance. In the late-1950’s he helped to install one of the first applications of protected/permissive left-turn phasing on Sunset Boulevard at La Cienega Boulevard in the West Hollywood area. During the early 1970’s he and his staff developed uniform traffic control guidelines to encourage consistency along major thoroughfares that crossed several cities in the County. He promoted up the ranks to the Division Chief of the Traffic and Lighting Division and was ceremoniously named the County Traffic Engineer by the Board of Supervisors. He remained in that position for eight years until his retirement in 1977.

After his retirement from Los Angeles County, he was an independent consultant for 30 years. He was much sought-after, even though he never advertised his services. He often served as the primary expert witness to the County of Los Angeles on tort liability matters. He would not take on other consulting opportunities if he was not entirely comfortable with the objectives of the client.

He was a patron of the arts and enjoyed symphonies and opera, possibly a reflection of his upbringing in Vienna. He also enjoyed dry martinis. His cultured background was evident in his professional practice, as he exhibited the qualities of being friendly, eloquent, gentlemanly and confident in his writing and speaking. In a profession where communication skills are so vital to success, he was the quintessential model and highly respected. He remained proud of his profession and had retained the personal license plate of “TRAFFIC” to demonstrate that pride.

He was active with the Institute of Traffic Engineers, as it was known before 1976. He served as president of the Southern California Chapter (now Section) and later served as president of the Western Section (now District) in 1966. He attended many annual meetings of the Western District. In 2001, the Southern California Section honored him as its second Classic Transportation Engineer.

Besides the transportation engineering “family”, he leaves behind his wife of 53 years, five children and nine grandchildren.