Marshall Miller Parks died on 27 July 2005. Marshall’s death marks the passing of the archetypal American gentleman paediatric ophthalmologist. With changing life styles, ambitions, ethics, and training we are unlikely to see anyone remotely similar. But many of his gifts in life have been passed on to the paediatric ophthalmologists that he influenced as surely as if the message were sent unerringly in a double helix.

Born in Old Mission, MI, USA, son of Ruth and Reuben Parks, he was one of four siblings. He received his BS from Illinois College in 1939, and graduated from St Louis University School of Medicine in 1943 before entering the US Navy during the second world war, serving as a medical officer on destroyers in the South Pacific. He studied paediatric ophthalmology under Frank D Costenbader, the first American paediatric ophthalmologist, and they started the first fellowship programme at what became the Children’s National Medical Center in …