Parks Library

With the original Parks Library completed in 1925, it was soon realized that it was not built large enough for future expansion of Iowa State’s written collections.

The next addition would not occur until 1961. This addition to the west of the original building included mainly space for books, but some reading space as well.

There were two more additions, one in 1969 that included the multi-tiered stacks and the last in 1983. These additions expanded the library both north, and to the west.

The addition in 1983, masterminded by President W. Robert Parks and his wife Ellen, expanded the library by more than four times its original size.

The library was renamed in their honor in 1984. The library’s collection had previously been stored in the Old Main, which burned down in 1902, as well as Morrill Hall and what is now known as Beardshear Hall.

Parks was born in 1915 in Tennessee. Parks earned his bachelor’s at Berea College, master’s at the University of Kentucky and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Parks performed research for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics from 1940 to 1948. During that time, he married his wife, Ellen Sorge. Sorge was the first woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin.

Parks began his career in 1948 at Iowa State College as a professor of government. Parks taught for two years at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, as an agricultural economics professor before returning to Iowa State as the dean of instruction.

Parks maintained that position until he was promoted to vice president of academic affairs in 1961, and later president of Iowa State in 1965. Parks maintained this position until 1989. Ellen Parks died in 1999, and Robert