1915 Born in Fort William, Ontario

1939 Graduated from the Ontario College of Art, in Toronto

1946 Studied at Black Mountain College, in Virginia, with Josef Albers

1947 - 57 Taught colour, design and watercolour painting at the Ontario College of Art

1957 - 67 Head of Design and Installations at the Royal Ontario Museum. For a sabbatical year held the position of Associate Professor at Fordham University, sharing the Albert Schweitzer Chair of Communications with Professor Marshall McLuhan

1967 - 75 Research Associate with the Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto

1973 Held the initial Chair for the William A. Kern Institute Professor of Communications at the Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, N.Y.

1976 - 89 Retired. Moved to British Columbia to live and paint in the West Kootenay

1989 - 1992 Lived in Vancouver, BC

Died March 3, 1992

Recipient of two Canada Council Grants for Study in Europe
Recipient of a British Council of the Arts Grant
Past President of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art
Former member of the Canadian Watercolour Society

Harley Parker lectured extensively in Canada, America, Australia, Europe, Africa and Japan; his audience included groups related to: art, politics, education and religion.

He co-authored, with Marshall McLuhan, Through the Vanishing Point: Space in Poetry and Painting (Harper & Row, New York, 1968).

He designed several works for Professor McLuhan, the last one being Counterblast (Harcourt-Brace & World Inc., New York 1969).

Over his career Parker published widely, including papers in Harvard Art Review, Art International, Canadian Art, 1973 Annual, National Association for Studies in Education, Chicago, contributor to This Cybernetic Age, Ed. Don Toppin, Information Incorporated Pr. New York, 1969, Living in the Seventies, Ed. Allen M. Linden, Peter Martin Associates, Toronto, 1970 and was a contributing author to the 1974 Year Book, The National Society for the Study of Education. Work in progress: Museums Are Today.

Numerous galleries have exhibited the paintings of Harley Parker, among them are: Beau Xi Gallery, Vancouver & Toronto, Prince Arthur Gallery, Toronto, and the Moos Gallery, Toronto. His paintings are represented in many private collections.