Richard Parsons was a business executive who rose to lead some of the largest organizations in the world, including having tenures at the top of Time Warner and Citigroup.
- Died: December 26, 2024 (Who else died on December 26?)
- Details of death: Died in New York City of cancer at the age of 76.
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Richard Parsons’ legacy
The Brooklyn-born Parsons was not born into wealth. His father was an electrical technician, his mother a homemaker. His grandfather was head groundskeeper at the Rockefeller estate, but that’s as close as Parsons’ kin came to it. He managed to climb corporate America’s highest ladders all the same.
After years attending University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Parsons earned a doctorate and finishing atop his class at Albany Law School of Union University, then worked as a staff lawyer for New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller and with President Gerald Ford in the 1970s. In 1977, he left to join the firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where he quickly became a partner.
But his major turn was arguably in 1988, when Parsons moved more overtly into the corporate world after being named chief operating officer of the Dime Savings Bank of New York. He later became chairman and CEO. This led to him joining the board of Time Warner in 1991, where he became company president, helped negotiate a merger with America Online alongside Gerald Levin (1939–2024), and eventually replaced Levin as CEO. Parsons stepped down in 2007, and two years later, he joined Citigroup as chairman.
In 2001, he was appointed to co-chair a commission on Social Security by President George W. Bush, then served on the economic advisory team for President Barack Obama. In 2014, Parsons was named interim CEO of NBA team the Los Angeles Clippers, among the many positions he held.
When not working at the highest levels in corporate America, Parsons supported the arts on the board of directors of the Jazz Foundation of America, chaired the Apollo Theater Foundation, and co-chaired the advisory board of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He also reconnected his family with the Rockefellers in spirit when he became a board trustee on the Rockefeller Foundation, eventually becoming board chair.
Tributes to Richard Parsons
Full obituary: CNN
