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  Mark McCormick  

WSU sets first Parks lecture for October

Wichita State University will host the first Gordon Parks Lecture on Oct. 6 at the Hughes Metropolitan Complex in what should be a busy year.

Ted Ayres, WSU's vice president and general counsel, said the event's working title is "Gordon Parks and His Influence on American Film."

WSU has commitments from Kevin Willmott, head of the film studies program at the University of Kansas, as moderator; Kurt Baker, a movie and television pioneer who worked with Parks; Parks' son, David Parks; and Dan Glickman, former congressman and secretary of agriculture and current president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

"With each step and every success, I feel that much closer to Mr. Parks and his wonderful life and legacy," Ayres said.

And that's just the beginning.

Ayres said he's been busy helping the school become the hub of all things Gordon Parks:

• He has been discussing the Ulrich Museum's possible hosting of a traveling exhibition of Parks' work.

• An exploratory committee is discussing a possible Parks academic center on campus.

• WSU wants to coordinate campus activities with the celebration each November of Parks' life in Fort Scott and with the dedication of the Gordon Parks Academy later this year.

• Ayres also will travel to New York next month to discuss continuing efforts with the Parks Foundation.

After Parks died at age 93 in 2006, WSU began a 12-month push for his collected papers and personal effects, valued at more than $500,000.

WSU beat out the U.S. Library of Congress and the New York Public Library earlier this year for the collection, which arrived in February sealed in 113 boxes.

Archivists in the school's department of special collections continue to examine the manuscripts, personal letters and professional correspondence the Parks Foundation in New York bequeathed to WSU.

The contents of those boxes reveal a man in perpetual creative motion.

His multidisciplinary work and his personal generosity have left a lot of work for Ayres. Parks gave a lot of his work away to people he liked, and he liked a lot of people.

Ayres said a WSU alum with an interest in 50 signed photographs of Parks' also had contacted the school.

"Those discussions have ceased for the time being, but I remain hopeful that some opportunity might present itself in the future," he said.

Ayres says he's been fortunate to see up close Parks' determination, his multifaceted talents, his zest for life, and his creative energy and genius.

And so he's been busy. The kind of busy that is no bother.

Boxes to explore and catalog. New people to meet. Ideas to flesh out. Partnerships to make. People to invite.

And events to organize.

Reach Mark McCormick at 316-268-6549 or mmccormick@wichitaeagle.com.