Lincoln Parkes

Lincoln John Parkes, DVM, of Oxford, MD, passed away on February 7, 2023, at Johns Hopkins Hospital after a short illness. Dr. “Nick” Parkes was born on February 10, 1928, in Gloucester, MA, the son of the late Robert Henry Parkes and Margaret Giles. In his early childhood, he got the bug for sailing and fashioned his first sailboat using an umbrella for a sail and continued to be an avid sailor until his death. He also was entrepreneurial from a young age – selling chicken eggs to purchase his first car before the age of 16. He enlisted in the US Naval Air Corps at the end of World War II with a desire to fly and serve his country. For a brief stint after WWII, he was a ski instructor at Mittersill Alpine Resort in Franconia, NH, where he developed a lifelong love of the mountains. Through a generous gift of the Mellon family, he attended prep school at Dartmouth before attending Colorado A&M (now Colorado State University) on the GI bill and became a veterinarian. Subsequently, he was the first of two interns at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School and obtained advance training in surgery. After a brief stint in Boulder, CO, as a solo practitioner, he was lured back East to the Animal Medical Center, which had just built a brand-new veterinary hospital seeing 95,000 patients/year in New York City. In 1964, he returned to Penn Vet as faculty member and small animal surgeon doing research in bone healing and collagen with doctors at the School of Medicine and was the mentor to many vet students, interns, and residents. In 1971, he took the leap and started the first veterinary orthopedic referral private practice along the Mainline of Philadelphia. This practice thrived and came to encompass many veterinary specialties and spawned the current veterinary specialty practices we know today. His professional memberships included the American Veterinary Medical Association, Eastern Veterinary Orthopedic Society, and Veterinary Orthopedic Society. Treating many pets for orthopedic and neurological problems initially in NYC and later in Philadelphia, he developed the concept of wheelchairs for dogs to aid pets who became paralyzed in the hindlimbs secondarily to spinal cord injuries. Ultimately, he obtained two patents for K-9 Cart wheelchair, which are still sold to this day around the world and helping tens of thousands of pets. In 1991, he retired from private practice and moved to Oxford, MD, where he continued to sell pet wheelchairs and touched many owners and four-legged animals with the gift of mobility. In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his sister (Ida McCann) and brother (Patrick Parkes). He is survived by his wife and fellow veterinarian, Dara L Kraitchman; his daughter, Anne Thomas of Downingtown, PA; his grandson, Tristan Parkes; and many nieces and nephews. A celebration of Nick's life will be held on Saturday, March 11, 11 a.m. at St. Paul's Church in Oxford, MD, at 225 S. Morris Street, followed by a gathering with food and drink in the Parish Hall of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Oxford located at 502 S. Morris Street at 12:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be sent to the DVM Class of 1957 Scholarship, Colorado State University Foundation, PO Box 1870, Fort Collins, CO 80522.

Lincoln Parkes

February 10, 1928 - February 7, 2023