Geoffrey Parr
Geoffrey Parr (1899-1961)
1961 Obituary [1]
MANY of our readers associated with the television and electronics industry will have learned with regret that Mr. Geoffrey Parr died suddenly at his home in Winchmore Hill, London, on May 30. He was, for fourteen years, honorary secretary of the Television Society.
Geoffrey Parr was born on December 29, 1899. His formal training as an electrical engineer was at Finsbury Technical College, and he was awarded the college certificate in electrical engineering in 1917. Then, for two years, he worked as a technical assistant on the staff of the Admiralty in Portsmouth.
When he returned to Finsbury in 1919 it was as lecturer and demonstrator at the City and Guilds Technical College. Seven years later he joined The Edison Swan Electric Company, Ltd., as a research engineer and in 1932 he was put in charge of this company's technical services in London.
It was in 1941 that Mr. Parr turned to technical journalism, by becoming editor (later, managing editor) of the newly founded journal Electronic Engineering. In 1949 he gave up this post to join Chapman and Hall, Ltd., as technical director and he held this directorship until his death.
His long association with the Television Society began in 1934 when he became a Fellow. As honorary editor of The Journal of the Television Society since 1944 he saw the journal's circulation increase fourfold and its editorial pages become the acknowledged medium for papers dealing with television research and development. Mr. Parr was elected joint honorary secretary of the Society in 1945 and honorary secretary in 1947. He served in the latter office until he retired just two weeks before his death. During his term of office membership of the Society had more than doubled.
As an author he was best known for The Cathode-Ray Tube and its Applications published twenty-four years ago and The Technical Writer which set out his views on technical authorship.