Robert W. Parkin, a pillar of the Long Beach and Los Angeles legal communities for more than six decades, has died. He was 94.
Calling him “a man of sharp legal mind and unwavering integrity” as Long Beach city attorney and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge, his family said Parkin died of natural causes at his home in Belmont Heights on March 31.
A celebration of his extraordinary life will take place at 10 a.m. May 29 at St. Bartholomew Catholic Church, 252 Granada Ave.
The Parkin name is well known in Long Beach city circles.
Robert Parkin’s brother, John W. Parkin, was a petroleum engineer who helped save Long Beach from sinking from oil drilling and turned the natural resource into a major revenue producer for the city. He died at 89 in 2015.
Charles Parkin, John Parkin’s son and Robert Parkin’s nephew, retired as Long Beach city attorney in 2022.
Robert Parkin was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island, in 1932 to George and Ethel Parkin, who had immigrated to the United States from England, where George had been a star soccer player. George, a machinist and tool and dye maker, moved with his wife and teenage son, Robert, to Long Beach, where Robert’s older brother, John, had moved a few years before and was stationed out of Long Beach during World War II.
Robert Parkin graduated from St. Anthony’s High School. He played guard on the St. Anthony football team, which won the state high school football championship in 1948.
He earned a criminology degree from UC Berkeley before serving in the U.S. Army as a military police officer in Korea in 1954 after the war had ended.
When he returned to Long Beach, he worked as an investigator for the Orange County district attorney’s office and the Long Beach Police Department during the day while attending night classes at Pacific Coast University School of Law, which held classes then at Wilson High School.
“This is when he had decided that he wanted to get a law degree so he could be an attorney doing public service work in the community,” said Greg Parkin, one of his sons. “He did not want to be a corporate lawyer.”
He started working for the city of Long Beach as a deputy city prosecutor in 1961. He rose through the ranks, serving as deputy city attorney in 1965, city prosecutor in 1974 and city attorney from 1978 to 1985.
While working as deputy city attorney, Parkin was unanimously selected by the City Council to complete the unfinished term of retiring City Prosecutor James T. Starr, who had spent 31 years in the job.
Newspaper clippings show that during his tenure as city attorney, Parkin spent much time dealing with financial issues and contracts for the Queen Mary. Parkin was on the Queen Mary when it arrived in Long Beach in 1967. He had gone aboard the ship when it arrived in Acapulco, Mexico, because a passenger had fallen on the ship. He went to determine if there were any legal issues connected to the fall.
In 1975, while he was city prosecutor, his office was asked to develop an ordinance prohibiting the use of skateboards on city streets and alleyways in response to numerous complaints from residents. Because of the development of faster polyurethane wheels in the early 1970s, skateboarding had exploded in popularity and many locals felt the sport had become a dangerous nuisance. Parkin agreed with the need for an ordinance, but he, the police chief and some of the City Council members felt it would be difficult to enforce any ban. The council decided not to enact a citywide ban and, instead, allowed for posting of no skateboarding signs where most needed.
Gov. George Deukmejian appointed Parkin as a judge for the Los Angeles County Superior Court in 1985, a post he served in until retiring in 2000 as the court’s presiding judge.
“As a judge, his ‘common sense’ approach earned him the deep respect of his fellow judges and colleagues, which culminated in them electing him as presiding judge in 1997,” his family said.
Parkin also was known for his candid style as a strong advocate of laws requiring open meetings and records.
“I always felt rather strongly that the public’s business ought to be open,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. “There are a lot of people (in government) who would just as soon feel that a lot of things not be made public, especially things that might tend to embarrass someone.”
Parkin said his path crossed many times with his brother, John, who was six years older, when they both worked for the city.
As a deputy city attorney at the time, he remembered handling oil development issues from a legal standpoint and his brother acting as the technical expert. During the 1950s and 1960s, oil issues dominated the city’s agenda and even threatened Long Beach’s future as large chunks of land literally began sinking from extensive oil drilling.
John Parkin, with the help of others, developed an idea to halt the subsidence by injecting water underground. This idea not only worked in stopping subsidence but it also produced more oil.
Voters in 1962 approved offshore drilling but with strict environmental controls and creation of four offshore, manmade islands decorated with high-rise structures, palm trees, waterfalls and colored lights to resemble a resort to camouflage oil-drilling operations.
While he was just getting started in his college education, Robert Parkin married his wife, Donna, in 1957. She died in 2020 after 63 years of marriage. They had four children: Greg, a database administrator; David, a computer programmer; Kathleen Williford, a third grade teacher at Los Cerritos Elementary; and Amy Royle, an attorney.
“While his professional achievements were impressive, Robert’s greatest joy was his family,” his children told me in a meeting at Amy’s house on Sunday. “He was a devoted husband to his wife, Donna. Their reunion brings peace to those who knew their bond. He was a steady, wonderful father, a guiding light to his 13 grandchildren and a source of great joy to his seven great-grandchildren.”
Kathleen said her father loved golf and was a fitness enthusiast, running in the Long Beach Marathon at 50 and driving a car until he was 92. David said his father also loved following his grandkids playing baseball and soccer.
Parkin also loved to travel and to cook. He was featured in a Press-Telegram story in 1974 as “Chef of the Week,” which included his recipe for baked lasagna. “Bob’s far too busy for hobbies, devoting most of his spare time to the kids,” his wife said at the time. ” As a chef, he insists upon preparing Sunday morning breakfast and is really great at making lasagna.”
Members of the Parkin family talked about Robert Parkin’s contributions to the city, along with his brother, John, and nephew, Charles.
“With his passing,” Charles Parkin said, “it is like the end of an era.”