John H. Parkes, L’58, G’66, GR’74, a former laboratory research associate in the University of Pennsylvania’s department of biochemistry & biophysics, died on January 15. He was 83.

Dr. Parkes was a native Philadelphian and lived for decades in West Philadelphia. After earning a bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College, he earned a Penn Law degree in 1958. He served as a captain in the United States Army from 1961-1963 and then returned to Penn, earning a master’s degree in physics in 1966 and a PhD in molecular biology in 1974. While working toward his master’s, Dr. Parkes began working in the anatomy department and then became a teaching fellow in the physics department.

In 1974, he became a research associate in the department of ophthalmology. He worked in the departments of cell & developmental biology and neuroscience before moving to the department of biochemistry & biophysics, where he developed novel opto-electronic research instrumentation and computing techniques for collaborative eye investigations, principally in the laboratory of Paul Liebman, professor of biochemistry & biophysics.Dr. Parkes helped educate dozens of undergraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral students until his retirement in 2000.

He is survived by his wife, Charlotte (Jones) and his brother, Alan.