Painter, designer, illustrator and teacher, subjects including landscape and still life. His pictures are often rather stylised with planes and in acrylic, as in a three-artist exhibition at The Halesworth Gallery, Halesworth, in 1999. Parsons studied for five years at Hornsey College of art. He was initially a freelance illustrator, working for major publishers including Frederick Warne & Company and Macmillan & Company. He later served as head of graphic design and vice-principal at Great Yarmouth College of Art, then was for many years until 1982 principal of Lowestoft School of Art. Parsons had solo exhibitions with John Whibley Gallery and in the provinces. He painted often in the Southwold-Walberswick region of Suffolk.