 He was a son of Eliza S. (née McGibben) Parson and Henry Edwin Parson, a former oil operator who made a fortune but lost it due to fires and the discovery of oil in Oil City, Pennsylvania.He had two brothers, Charles Parson (of Missoula, Montana) and Stuart Parson (of Bronxville, New York).When he was seven years old, his parents brought him to Brooklyn.