In Memoriam: Dorothy Dent Park

Faculty and staff at the Boyce Thompson Institute were saddened to hear of the passing of Dorothy Dent Park, former president of the Park Foundation and mother of BTI board member Roy Park Jr. She died in her home in Cayuga Heights on June 18, at the age of 103.

Dorothy Park was a consummate philanthropist and humanitarian, who was concerned especially with education, animal welfare and the environment. She and her husband, Roy Hampton Park, founder, chairman and CEO of Park Communications, started the Park Foundation in 1966. The organization funds a wide variety of worthwhile causes, with grants to Ithaca College, North Carolina State University, Cornell University, Tompkins County Library and the Tompkins Country SPCA, among others. When her husband died in 1993, she donated the proceeds from the sale of the company to the Park Foundation.

One of the initial core grantees of the Park Foundation included the Boyce Thompson Institute. Roy H. Park joined the board of BTI in 1984, and of the dozens of directorships that he held, his membership on the BTI board was the only position that he retained until he died. At the request of Dorothy Park, Roy Park Jr. joined the BTI board in 1995 to continue his father’s legacy. BTI’s research activities have been greatly enhanced through the decades of dedicated service of the Park family on BTI’s board.

The Triad Foundation, headed by Roy Park Jr., was created when the Park Foundation grew into a second charitable organization, and took over the philanthropic commitments to BTI in 2003. BTI is grateful for the continued support of the Triad Foundation and the Park family.

Read more about Dorothy Park’s life and work here.