Kevin Parry
Kevin John Parry (1933 – 26 November 2010) was a businessman from Western Australia, most noted for his backing of the Taskforce '87 syndicate which unsuccessfully defended the 1987 America's Cup in Fremantle, Western Australia.[1] The defence cost over $20 million and built and raced three 12-metre class boats: Kookaburra I, Kookaburra II, and Kookaburra III.[2]
In his younger years, Parry had been a noted Australian baseball player.[3][4] He later established the Perth Heat baseball team as well as funding the first purpose-built baseball stadium in Perth, Parry Field at Belmont.[5]
Parry headed the diversified Parry Corporation group (formerly Parry's Esplanade Limited and before that Parry's Department Stores), which included the Perth-based Parry's department stores which he inherited, with his sisters Shiela and Edith, from their parents, who had built it up from a backyard furniture workshop.[3] In 1986, Parry Corporation was ranked 96 in a listing of the top 100 Australian non-financial firms.[6] The West Perth Scitech centre was supported by Parry until financial difficulties ended his involvement.[7]
Parry was associated with other high-flying Perth entrepreneurs in funding the Australian Labor Party through a structure named the John Curtin Foundation, formed in October 1984 to harvest corporate funding for and facilitate political patronage of the federal Hawke government and the notorious WA Inc state government of Brian Burke.[8] Parry Corporation suffered considerable financial difficulties after the 1987 Stock Market Crash and in late 1987, Parry lost control of the company.[7] He later headed a small Perth-based homeopathic company Astop Biohealth with his son Cameron.[9]
Parry was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988.[10] This award was rescinded in 1996 after he was charged with stealing $75,000 from the Western Australian State Superannuation Board, a charge that had been thrown out in 1995.[11]
On 26 November 2010, Parry died in a car accident near his home in Bullsbrook.[12]
References
- ↑ Fremantle - Wednesday, 4 February 1987, the revenge of the United States
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ A History of Australian Baseball: Time and Game
- ↑ Baseball Fever on the Rise in Australia
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Tony Barrass Business and Labor at the birth of WA Inc The Weekend Australian, 8-9 August 2009, p. 4. (The article includes a photograph in which Parry is seated next to Bob Hawke.) Short-term URL
- ↑ Bird flu inhibitor hope for Kevin Parry's Astop Biohealth in WA Business News (a site requiring paid subscription)
- ↑ Sydney Morning Herald, 26 January 1988. Retrieved 20 March 2014
- ↑ Peter Mickelburough, "Social leaders stripped of honours after falling from grace", Herald Sun, 6 June 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2014
- ↑ Perth businessman Kevin Parry dies in car crash
External links
- Articles with dead external links from October 2010
- Use dmy dates from January 2012
- Use Australian English from January 2012
- All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English
- 1933 births
- People from Perth, Western Australia
- Australian businesspeople
- Australian sailors (sport)
- America's Cup sailors
- 1987 America's Cup
- Former Officers of the Order of Australia
- Road accident deaths in Australia
- Accidental deaths in Western Australia
- 2010 deaths
