Floyd William (Bill) Parsons Jr.

Floyd William (Bill) Parsons Jr. died on May 1 at the age of 73 while hiking in a remote area of the Sonoran Desert he loved near Tucson, Ariz. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, he graduated from Big Spring (Texas) High School and then the University of Arkansas before beginning a lifetime of adventure and socially conscious service. He served from 1964-66 in the Peace Corps in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and the next two years in the Teacher Corps in Rio Grande City, Texas. He became a teacher at the New York Institute of Photography in the late 1960s and took freelance photos at the 1969 Woodstock rock festival, which he sold to The New York Times, Rolling Stone magazine and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Following several years living in Mexico, Mr. Parsons returned to Arkansas as a video producer at the Arkansas Educational Television Network in Conway. In the mid 1970s, he started Bill Parsons Inc., turning an abandoned building on West 9th Street in Little Rock into a state-of-the-art commercial photography studio. Clients ranged from Dillard's and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to a commissioned portrait of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. He traveled often as lead photographer for a series of child development books published by Johnson & Johnson. He was a life member of the American Society of Media Photographers. Mr. Parsons moved to Los Angeles in 1998 and relocated five years later to the town of Boulevard in the high desert of California, where he combined his passion for photography with the beauty of open country. "I spend at least one day per week out in a wilderness area," he wrote in 2005. "When I look back at my childhood, I see that all I ever really wanted was to play outside when the weather was good, and read a book in a warm house when it was night or when it rained." Mr. Parsons authored a book of photography titled "McCain Valley ... Adios?" about the prospect of commercialization in the high desert east of San Diego. He retired to Tucson in 2009. He is survived by Lucien Parsons, his son with Sheila Parsons of Conway, and Lucien's wife, Kelly, and their two children, Creighton William and Van D., all of Silver Spring, Md.; a sister, Lou Anne Parsons Smoot, of Tyler, Texas; a brother, Paul Parsons, of Elon, N.C.; and six nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, Floyd Sr. and Christina Parsons. The senior Parsons was superintendent of schools in Little Rock from 1961 to 1972.