Dr. Leighton Brown Parker has been inducted into the Duke Tower Society at Duke University and the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Society at Weill Cornell University Medical College. This was in recognition of his generous support of both institutions in their quest for excellence in research and education.
Dr. Parker graduated from Manning High School as Valedictorian in 1960. He graduated from Duke University Summa cum Laude and was a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa. He then attended Cornell University Medical College in New York City where he received his M.D. degree. He trained in general surgery and then neurosurgery at Tulane University in New Orleans and studied neuropathology at Yale Medical College in New Haven, Connecticut. He served as Chief Resident of neurosurgery at the VA Hospital, Charity Hospital, Tulane Medical School Hospital and Alton Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans. He was a Lt. Commander in the US Navy and the Regimental Surgeon of the 7th Marine Regiment at Camp Pendleton, California. Practicing neurosurgery for 30 years in Fort Worth, Texas, he was the Chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery for the North Texas Specialty Physicians. He is a member of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and a Diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery. He retired in 2008 and moved to Europe for a year. He now lives in Fort Worth and Palm Springs, California. He has a brother, Nelson, an attorney in Manning, a sister, Sherry Twining of Orlean, Virginia and a brother, Ben Parker of Silver Springs, Maryland. He is the son of the late Leighton and Lovey Hill Parker of Manning.