Ali Asghar Parsa

Ali (also known as Meddy) Parsa was born in Tafresh, Iran, the middle of three children born to Batool Parsa and Gholamreza Karimi. He attended parochial school in the village and went on to graduate from Alborz High School in Tehran. He made his way to the United States to work and study, graduating with a BS and MA in soil science and agricultural education from California State Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. While studying at Cal Poly, he worked many jobs, including fruit picking in the Valley of the Heart’s Delight (now Silicon Valley), at a cannery and taco stands. He later received his PhD in agronomy and soil science from Colorado State University in Fort Collins.Ali devoted 20 years of his life to teaching at the University of Shiraz in Iran (then Pahlavi University), and founded the Department of Soil Science and the Soil Testing Laboratory for the College of Agriculture. He served as the chairman of the department for several years. After moving to the United States in 1980, he eventually found work with the US Department of Interior working with Native American communities on natural resource utilization and conservation.Near the conclusion of his studies at CSU, Ali met Sue Starling and they married in December of 1968. They settled in Shiraz to start their family. Ali was a life-long lover of poetry and philosophy and an engaged political thinker. He took particular inspiration from the life and poetry of Omar Khayyam, completing a new translation in a self-published volume called Rediscovery of Hakim Omar Khayyam. In his biographical statement at the beginning of that volume he wrote that “He owes his love of poetry to his innate desire and initial exposure to nature and the beautiful mountain surroundings of his birthplace and to the inspiration he received from reading the work of many poets and prominent people in Iran who had special affinity fo life-long-learning both in science and humanities.”Ali is remembered by his family as passionate, adventurous, creative, inventive and loving. He lived by his motto (attributed to a mentor at CSU, Mehdi Nakhosteen): “A person of one view is a person of no view.” Ali leaves behind his loving wife Sue, daughters Parisa (Enrique Silva), Pardis, and Pamela (Phillip Bond), and grandchildren Kian Silva, Roxana Bond, Darius Silva, and Leila Bond, as well as many cousins and extended family in the U.S., Canada, and Iran.In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to:Kingwood Center50 N. Trimble RoadMansfield, OH 44906www.kingwoodcenter.orgThe Lewy Body Dementia Associationwww.lbda.orgMessages of sympathy may be sent to:Sue Parsa1009 Blossom River Way #314San Jose, CA 95123