Charles P. Parkhurst, ’38, distinguished art historian, museum director and seminal figure in the history of Oberlin College’s Allen Memorial Art Museum (AMAM), died June 25, at his home in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was 95.

Mr. Parkhurst was born in Columbus, Ohio. He attended grammar school and high school in Oberlin, and spent one year at the College before transferring to Williams College, where he received his B.A. in 1935. He returned to Oberlin to do graduate work in art history under the legendary Clarence Ward, who became his mentor. After earning his M.A. in art history in 1938, Mr. Parkhurst went on at Mr. Ward’s urging to earn his MFA at Princeton University in 1941.

During World War II, Mr. Parkhurst served as a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy in the Mediterranean theater. Late in the war, he was assigned to the Roberts Commission. Known as the "Monuments Men,” the commission’s team of art historians and curators were tasked with tracking down works of art lost or stolen during the war. Mr. Parkhurst was eventually awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government for his work in restoring French art to its rightful owners.

In 1949, Mr. Parkhust became head of Oberlin’s Department of Art and Professor of the History and Appreciation of Art, as well as director of the AMAM. He held those posts until 1962. During his tenure, Mr. Parkhurst was responsible for many important acquisitions for the museum's collection, most notably a 1625 painting by Dutch artist Hendrick ter Brugghen, St. Sebastian Tended by Irene. In a recent survey, this painting was named most often by leading art historians and curators as the painting in America “unmatched in European collections.”
Mr. Parkhurst also co-founded the Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) in 1952. Originally located on the Oberlin College campus and now in Cleveland, the ICA was the nation’s first non-profit regional art conservation center.
In 1962, Mr. Parkhurst became director of the Baltimore Museum of Art, a post he held until 1970. As president of the American Association of Museums from 1966 to 1968, he developed an accreditation system for museums similar to the one used by universities. He was named assistant director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Art in 1970, as the museum prepared to break ground for the construction of its East Building.
After retiring from the National Gallery in 1983, Mr. Parkhurst taught and held museum positions at Williams College and Smith College, and published widely.