Ed Parks was born to Edwin Rose Parks "the first" and Rosabel Mosley Parks of Waterbury, Connecticut. His father died in the 1919 flu epidemic, leaving Ed to be raised single-handedly by his mother, Rosabel (Rosa). He attended Driggs Grammar School in Waterbury, and developed an early talent for drawing, as well as an interest in aeronautics. He and his mother moved to Watertown when Ed was in Junior High, and he then attended Watertown High School (Connecticut). He was encouraged by his art teacher, H. Louise Johnson, to paint a mural in the High School basement gymnasium. The mural was an idealized history of the world, from the dinosaurs through present civilization. Around this time, he received his first freelance art job--drawing a small concept sketch for the patent papers of the very first Mickey Mouse watch, made by th...read more