UCLA Radiologist to Receive ‘Gold Medal’

Even though he has been named winner of the 1996 Gold Medal by the Radiological Society of North America, Dr. Robert G. Parker of Encino is not counting on anything.

“If I get hit by a truck, I won’t be getting it,” said Parker, who has been fighting cancer as a radiation oncologist for almost 40 years. A member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, he will receive the medal on Dec. 3 at the annual meeting of the RSNA in Chicago.

The RSNA, which was founded in 1915 and has 30,000 members around the world, awards three gold medals a year to recognize radiologists and health-care scientists. Parker was modest about the reasons he was chosen.

“It’s probably longevity,” said Parker, father of two adult children. “I’ve outlived most everyone else.”

In 1958, Parker founded and chaired the radiation oncology department at the University of Washington in Seattle. In 1977, he came to Los Angeles to chair radiation oncology at UCLA until 1994.

Parker had also been president of the RSNA in 1992, president of the American Radiological Society from 1990 to 1992 as well as president of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiation and Oncology.

A researcher with the National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health, Parker has also been an honorary lecturer at universities across the country.