Reginald Hascall Parsons (October 3, 1873 - June 9, 1955) was a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

businessman and philanthropist during the first half of the twentieth century. He was born on

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18th ...

and came west to Seattle with his family in 1904 to manage the Bemis Bag Company there.

Background

Parsons became the first president of the

Seattle Area Council Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

of the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

in 1916 and held the position for five years. He donated to the Council the original plot of land on the Hood Canal that soon after became

Camp Parsons Chief Seattle Council (originally called Seattle Area Council) is the local council governing the scouting activities of the Boy Scouts of America in a large part of the Puget Sound and Seattle area, including almost all of the Olympic Peninsula. ...

(which opened in 1919). During the same time period (1916 - 1921), Parsons served in the

Seattle Chamber of Commerce The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce is a private, membership-based organization that represents economic development and the economic interests of its corporate members in the metro region of Seattle, Washington. Its members include most ...

. Parsons was later active on the National Board of the Boy Scouts of America and spent much of his time involved with several other organizations including the Seattle Social Welfare League, the Pacific Coast Defense League, the Seattle Community Chest, Lakeside School, and the

National Chamber of Commerce The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is the largest lobbying group in the United States, representing over three million businesses and organizations. The group was founded in April 1912 out of local chambers of commerce at the urging ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Reginald Businesspeople from Seattle American philanthropists 1873 births 1955 deaths