08/24/1986 - Barbara Seaver, John Parrish, Joan Rappaport at Levy Center (Evanston, IL)

2023 - John Parrish in the Virtual Dance Room

circa late 1990s-early 2000s - Warren Kubitschek, Don Weeda, John Parrish at Ethnic Dance Chicago at St Josaphat Church in Chicago (Lincoln Park)

circa late 1990s-early 2000s - Warren Kubitschek, Don Weeda, John Parrish at Ethnic Dance Chicago at St Josaphat Church in Chicago (Lincoln Park)

not sure of date or location - John Parrish on Tupan

We honor the life of John Parrish who apparently passed away in his sleep sometime after 7:00pm EDT on Monday, July 28th.

NOTE: To view the online Kudoboard Memorial Page I've setup for John OR if you've already emailed me text comments and/or photos, please post your contributions to John's Kudoboard page - please see below...

John was a prominent musician, participant spotlighter and copy editor in VDR events. He was a personal friend of mine for over 50 years.

John was looking forward to attending the Ti Ti Tabor Hungarian Folk Dance Camp starting on August 4th, in Gig Harbor, WA (Tacoma area). A West coast dance friend (Marjorie) who usually picked him up from the train station or the airport became concerned because she had not heard from John and had tried to call him to offer him a ride to camp. She eventually contacted some of John's friends in the Detroit area to express her concerns.

On Monday (August 4th, the day the camp started), John's ex-wife (Melanie), her brother (Ron) and a friend (Karen) went to John's house in Oak Park, MI (Detroit area) for a wellness check and found that John had passed away in bed.

It seems as though the last person John had spoken with was his friend Laurie in Chicago at around 7pm on Monday, July 28th. On his trips out West to dance camps, John would often stop over at Laurie's place and park his car nearby, before catching the train or a plane from Chicago. Apparently, that evening, John told Laurie that he was going to mow the lawn and then take a shower. After taking a shower, John apparently got into bed and did not wake up. We don't know the cause of death at this time.

No further details are available at this time. There is currently no information about a funeral or a memorial service.

John's Detroit area friends will notify us about a memorial service.

I first met John on the volleyball court in Ida Noyes Gym at the University of Chicago, in around 1970. I had to leave volleyball early to go to a Folk Dance group (in the Ida Noyes Cloister Club) run by Ed Stern and myself. John started coming to this group after volleyball, not to dance, but to pick up his wife Marsha who danced with us. John did not have much interest in IFD until after he had sustained a knee injury and was in a cast for several weeks. I asked John what he was planning to do for rehab and he was not sure. I suggested that he try folk dancing as part of his rehab and the rest is history.

Within a short period of time, John was hooked and went on to become one of Chicago's group leaders and event promoters. He developed strong interests in learning and teaching Balkan, Scandinavian and Hungarian dance as well as in workshop and festival production, attending many folk dance camps and travelling to Europe. He developed proficiencies in a number of unusual and traditional ethnic instruments and eagerly shared his musical expertise (in person and on Zoom) with many dance communities around the world.

I played a John Parrish music video from a January 2023 Zoom sesion at the VDR Friday dance on Auguat 8th. I played another video from 2021 at the VDR Friday dance on August 15th. I also played this video at the VDR After-Party on Saturday, August 16th

I will play other John Parrish videos for VDR events through August as I am able to locate them and prepare them.

We will miss John very much at our Friday and Saturday dances and at our Friday and Saturday post-dance discussions.

There are MANY infamous "John Parrish Stories" and I invite all to share them at our post-dance discussions following VDR dances and on John's Kudoboard memorial page (see below).There are already several excellent and typical "John Parrish stories" posted on John's Kudoboard.

I'll close here with the bio John wrote for himself for the VDR and DCFF websites.

"John Parrish has been sticking things in his mouth and playing on them from an early age. When he was 10 he got his first goyishe harp from the spouse of his piano teacher who winced and said "Here, why don't you play this instead?" About fifteen years ago he played it for a four day run in an off-Broadway revue. He apprenticed on harmonica at German youth hostels in the 60's and had been invited to teach Swedish folk harmonica at a camp in Sweden.

John also plays miscellaneous folk flutes. He started playing the tapan, which wouldn't fit in his mouth, in the mid 70's, which is what he is now. He picked up the violin about twenty years ago and intends to play it any day now. Actually he goes to group fiddle lessons at camps to learn tunes for his harmonicas and would be better on the fiddle if he opened the case more often. He also sings in a variety of languages, some of which people recognize."

NEW - John Parrish Kudoboard Mini-Memorial Page

NOTE: To view an online Kudoboard Memorial Page for John OR if you've already emailed me text comments and/or photos, please post your contributions to John's Mini-Kudoboard page:

https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/8tRNe3Am

• This paid kudoboard Mini-Memorial Page supports:
  • unlimited posts of text messages
  • unlimited posts of photos
  • unlimited add or record videos
  • unlimited add or record audio messages

This "Mini-Memorial Page" can be viewed, printed various ways and played as a slide show

Sincerely,
Paul Collins - Chicago, IL
pcollins@virtualdanceroom.net - 847-846-8139