Parker Thomson
Parker Thomson was born in Troy, New York, to a history professor at Russell Sage College. During his childhood, he frequently attended performances at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and later enrolled at The Albany Academy. He went on to study at Princeton University, where he majored in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and wrote his senior thesis on “U.S. Foreign Policy and the Schuman Plan.” As a philanthropist, Thomson was instrumental in helping to lead the initiative to create the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, which opened in 2006. He collaborated with his daughter, Meg Daly, and Jorge A. Plasencia to launch the nonprofit Friends of the Underline. There, Thomson served as a director and was a passionate advocate for transforming the Miami-Dade Metrorail into a 10-mile linear park. Following his death in November 2017 in Coral Gables, Florida, The Florida Bar established awards in his honor, given to local journalists.