Edwin Brewington Parker was an American international jurist.
Background
Edwin Brewington Packer was born on September 7, 1868 in Shelbina, Shelby County, Missouri, United States. His grandfather, a substantial Maryland physician, had liberated his 200 slaves some years before the Civil War, but his father, George John Parker, a resident of Missouri, fought in the Confederate army until captured and paroled under oath not to take up arms again. His mother, Emrette (Faulkner) Parker, had been a teacher in Virginia and was a member of the faculty of the college at Fayette, Missouri, that later became Howard-Payne College.
Education
For a time Edwin Brewington Parker attended Central College, at Fayette, Missouri, but did not graduate. Through the influence of his mother's brother, Alsdorf Faulkner, then a prosperous citizen of Texas, he began the study of law at the University of Texas and received the Bachelor of Law degree in June 1889. Being in debt for his education, he entered the employ of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway and at the end of four years had become assistant general passenger agent.
Career
Edwin Brewington Packer began the practice of the law in 1893 in Houston, Texas, with the firm of Baker, Botts, Baker & Lovett, one of the largest law firms in the Southwest. In ten years he became a member of his firm, the name of which became Baker, Botts, Parker & Garwood. In ten years more he was recognized as a leader not only at the bar, but in business as well, serving as director for a number of successful business corporations. When the United States entered the World War, he became a member of the War Industries Board and was appointed priorities commissioner. In this latter position he did an enormous amount of work, and in thirteen months his office handled 211, 000 applications for priority and issued 192, 000 orders. When the war closed, he was made chairman of the Liquidation Commission, and either returned to the United States or sold, principally to France, more than $3, 000, 000, 000 worth of munitions and supplies that had been shipped to France for the use of the United States army.
This work finished, he returned to his law practice, as general counsel for one of the great oil companies, the Texas Company, but in 1923 he was again called into the service of the government, this time as umpire of the Mixed Claims Commission, United States and Germany, a position he held until his death. Some 12, 400 claims, aggregating $1, 480, 000, 000 were filed with this commission, involving many questions entirely new in international law, such as the use of submarines, airplanes, and poison gas. The published reports of his opinions show a grasp of international law that challenged the admiration of statesmen and experts in international affairs. Before this work was finished, the United States, Austria, and Hungary, with Parker in mind, had drawn a treaty providing for a single commissioner to settle the claims of American citizens against these two parts of the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy.
Edwin Brewington Parker was selected for this work and before his death had completed the task, disposing of claims aggregating about $41, 000, 000 (Tripartite Claims Commission, United States, Austria, and Hungary, Final Report of Commissioner and Decisions and Opinions, 1933). One other service he was called to render to his country. In 1928 he was named arbiter to determine claims against the United States growing out of the seizure of the German and Austrian vessels that were in American harbors when war was declared. This work was well under way but was not completed at the time of his death in Washington. For his services in these various positions, he was decorated by the United States, France, Belgium, Italy, and Poland. In his will he gave the residue of his estate for a school of international affairs and named a board of advisory trustees, who decided to establish the school at Columbia University. He died on October 30, 1929.
Achievements
Edwin Brewington Parker was eminent leader of Baker, Botts, Parker & Garwood company. He was the umpire of the Mixed Claims Commission, United States and Germany.
Connections
On December 27, 1894, Edwin Brewington Packer was married to Katherine Putman Blunt, the daughter of General James G. Blunt.
