The tribute paid by the Senior class to Richard Perkins Parker '22 by dedicating its album to his memory is the most unusual which has been rendered a Harvard undergraduate for a long time. The reasons for such a dedication are manifold. From the time that class activities were resumed in the early months of 1919, Parker's share in them was large. During that spring he served on the Freshman dinner committee and was also assistant business manager of the Red Book. The following fall he was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the class, was a member of the Second Football Team, and a Business Editor of the Lampoon. In his Junior year he was chairman of the Dance Committee and also took a part in the Hasty Pudding Play. During all of his three years at college he was an earnest, keen student.
This is a bare summary of his more prominent activities. No such review can indicate adequately the number and variety of the friendships he made, the honor and popularity which accompanied his achievements. But the number of his classmates who keenly felt the loss caused by his death last September is evidence of the high esteem in which he was held. In his life he was the source of constant inspiration to his associates; by dedicating the Album to him the class will keep before it his inspiring example, and incorporate in the record of its undergraduate years a memoir of one of whom it may be said:
"It has pleased God that in his death, as well as in his life and nature, he should be marked beyond ordinary men."
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