Russell Johnston Parker was among those killed in a Canadian air crash* on 9th September, 1949, forty miles from Quebec. He was 52 years of age.
He received his professional training at the Colorado School of Mines, and on graduating E.M. in 1919 joined the Société Internationale Forestiere et Miniere du Congo. He began prospecting for and developing alluvial diamond deposits and then worked in the technical office for field headquarters, before being placed in charge of the Muaba mine. He was then appointed acting head of the research department, to which position he returned after a period as manager of the Société Miniere du Luebo.
He came to the London office of Selection Trust, Ltd., for six months in 1925 before going to Northern Rhodesia to examine their properties, including Roan Antelope, and in August, 1926, was appointed manager of Mineralise Ventures, which later became Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd. During the five years Mr. Parker held this position he carried out a geological survey of the Nkanu, concession and the preliminary development of the Mufulira mine until a separate company was formed in 1930. His work also included development of Chambishi and Baluba mines. At the beginning of 1931 Mr. Parker returned to London as assistant to the managing director of Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd., Mufulira Copper Mines, Ltd., and Rhodesian Selection Trust, Ltd.
In 1942 he took up the appointment of assistant to the President of the Kennecott Copper Corporation, Inc., in New York, and in 1948 became vice-president of the Corporation and president of its subsidiary, the Quebec Iron and Titanium Company.
Mr. Parker was elected to Membership of the Institution in 1933 and served as Member of Council from 1938 to 1941, as Vice-President from 1941 to 1944, and until 1948 had been Member of Council for the U.S.A. With Mr. Anton Gray he contributed a paper to the Transactions of the Institution entitled ‘Prospecting and geological survey of the Nkana concession, Northern Rhodesia: 1927-1929’ (vol. 45, 1935-36).
He was a member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. He was in 1948 presented with the Medal of Merit of the Colorado School of Mines for achievements in the discovery and development of new orebodies.
Vol. 59, Trans I.M.M., 1949-50, p.?
*Flight 108, a Canadian Pacific Airlines Douglas DC-3 aircraft, left L’Ancienne-Lorette airport on a stopover flight onward to Baie-Comeau. It was there that Joseph-Albert Guay’s wife Rita boarded the plane, unknowingly bringing a bomb which he had planted in her suitcase. It exploded killing 23, including three American executives from the Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation including the retiring president, E.T. Stannard; his designated successor, Arthur D. Storke; and Russell Johnston Parker, a vice-president. Guay and his two associates were executed.
