1. Introduction

Gordon Lesley Park (June 29, 1937 – March 11, 2010) was a petroleum engineer and geologist for the Chevron Oil Company, who served from 1993 to 1996 as a Republican member of the Wyoming House of Representatives from District 49 in Uinta County.

2. Background

Park was born to Harold Gordon Park and the former Iva Hazel Edwards (born 1917) in Lexington in Cleveland County in central Oklahoma. He was reared in California , where he attended elementary school at Lost Hills in Kern County. He was baptized as a young man upon his profession of faith in Jesus Christ into the Southern Baptist denomination. In 1950, he attended the Boy Scout Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. In 1955, he graduated from Wasco Union High School in Wasco, also in Kern County. He then attended Bakersfield College, a junior college in Bakersfield, California. In 1961, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in geology from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was then employed by Standard Oil of California (subsequently Chevron) and spent the following thirty-two years working in various locations around the globe.^[1]

3. Later Years

In 1987, Park was transferred to Evanston, the county seat of Uinta County in far southwestern Wyoming adjacent to the Utah state line, as the manager of Chevron operations there. He retired from the company in 1992 and immediately ran for the Wyoming House. Park was the Republican state committeeman for Uinta County. The Parks attended the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego, California, and the 2000 confab in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[1] The District 49 seat is now held by a Democrat, Saundra Meyer of Evanston.^[2] The Parks have been regular donors to the Wyoming Republican Party.^[3]

Park was affiliated with Rotary International, the Lions International, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Chamber of Commerce, the Wyoming State Hospital Advisory Board, the Evanston Housing Authority, Bear River Basin Advisory Group, the Uinta County Citizens Coalition, the interest group, the Petroleum Association of Wyoming, and the Wyoming Heritage Society. He was an outdoorsman who engaged in trap shooting, camping, snowbirding, skiing, and golf.^[1]

On July 13, 1957, Park wed the former Ann Hively (born 1938), and the couple had two children, Michael Sean Park (born 1963) and wife Janine, grandchildren Antonio, Anna, and Amanda, and Leslie Ann Carlson (born 1966) and husband Alan, all of Evanston. He was also survived by his mother; two brothers, Leonard Park of McCloud, California, and Ronald Park of Bakersfield, California, and three adopted granddaughters, Pam, Megan, and Holly. He was preceded in death by his father and his brother, Raymond Park. The obituary does not specify the place or cause of death. Park was cremated.^[1]