Parks, Lewis S. Papers

Officer, U.S. Navy, 1925-1960; Executive Aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1947; Executive Aide to the Under Secretary of the Navy, 1948-1949; Commander, USS Manchester, 1950-1951

The Papers of Lewis S. Parks include correspondence, handwritten notes, memorabilia, newspaper clippings, memoranda, reports, and other items concerning his years of Naval service and his retirement.

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 10 linear inches (about 1,200 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave her copyrights in this collection to the United States of America. Documents created by U.S government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyrights in other documents in this collection presumably belong to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Dennis E. Bilger (1982).
Updated by: Tracy Gilbertson (2012) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1902 (April 13)		Born Lewis Smith Parks, Bayport, New York
1925		Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy
1929		Attended Submarine School in New London, Connecticut
1930-1932		Held various positions aboard submarines attached to the Asiatic Fleet
1934		Received degree in Naval Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School
1939-1942		Commander, USS Pompano
1942-1946		Commanded various submarine squadrons and task groups
1946-1947		Stationed at Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut
1947		Executive Aide to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy
1948-1949		Executive Aide to the Under Secretary of the Navy
1950-1951		Commander, USS Manchester
1952-1954		Chief of Information, Navy Department
1954-1955		Commander, U.S. Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia
1955-1957		Deputy Chief of Staff for the Joint Staff of the United Nations Command and Far East Command, Tokyo, Japan
1957		Commander, Battleship Division 2
1958		Commander of a Fast Carrier Task Group during the Lebanon crisis
1959		Commandant of the Fifteenth Naval District at Fort Amador, Canal Zone
1960		Retired from active duty
1982 (April 27)		Died, Pompano Beach, Florida

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The Papers of Lewis S. Parks include information relating to his career in the Navy and his activities during retirement. The papers are arranged alphabetically in a single series.

The collection mainly consists of correspondence, memoranda, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and publications, with the bulk of the material covering the years from 1941 to 1971. Included is information about various aspects of Parks's Naval service during World War II: submarine patrols, Japanese prisoners of war, the presentation of awards and citations, and engagements with the enemy.

The papers also include drafts of the introduction Parks wrote for the book The Complete Book of United States Battleships, with related correspondence, as well as articles, poems, and song lyrics written by Parks or others. There is also memorabilia, such as certificates and citations that were given to Parks during his career.

The collection contains printed materials such as magazines, cartoons, newsletters, and booklets, as well as two books documenting the activities of the USS Manchester, a vessel commanded by Parks during the Korean War. There are also newspaper clippings relating to Parks's career in the Navy, as well as the contents of a scrapbook that contains more newspaper clippings and magazine articles relating to Parks's career and retirement years. The papers also include a collection of cartoons created by Kenneth Schacht while he was a prisoner of war in Japan.

The Truman Library has other collections relating to the U.S. Navy during the Truman administration, including the Papers of John L. Sullivan (Secretary of the Navy, 1947-1949), W. John Kenney (Under Secretary of the Navy, 1947-1949), and Robert L. Dennison (Naval Aide to the President, 1948-1953).

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

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