Parks was raised in the Wilmington, Delaware, area and studied with Marcus A. Renzetti in Philadelphia and later at the University of Delaware and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He served in the United States Air Force during World War II and taught sculpture at the Delaware Art Museum in the late 1940s. His work has earned him a number of prizes including the Walker Hancock Prize at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1950; the Tiffany Foundation Award in 1954 and 1957; and the Elizabeth Watrous Medal at the National Academy in 1980 for The Grandson.
Among his numerous public commissions are the doors for the First Unitarian Church at Sharpley, Delaware, and a large Crucifixion at Zion Lutheran Church in Wilmington. Other works are at Fountain Plaza, Wilmington, and at the state capitol buildings at Columbia, South Carolina, and Dover, Delaware. Parks' sons Eric and Christopher are both sculptors.
