Philanthropist Roland Parrish, inspired by grandfather, claims Dallas’ highest Civic honor.
By Jean-Jacques Taylor
President, JJT Media Group
November 18, 2024
Roland G. Parrish views each day as an opportunity to honor his grandfather’s work ethic.
That approach led to Parrish receiving the 95th Linz Award, one of Dallas’ most prestigious civic honors.
Parrish, 71, who owns 25 McDonald’s restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth, has made running restaurants and philanthropy the epicenter of his life for five decades.
He’s the second largest investor in the ReImagining RedBird Mall Project, bringing medical services from Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center to southern Dallas.
He’s created scholarship opportunities for local students involved in marching band, poetry, and debate while supporting athletic programs at high schools such as DeSoto, Duncanville, and South Oak Cliff.
He’s also supported organizations like the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame and the African American Museum of Dallas.
Why?
His grandfather’s legacy serves as a daily inspiration.
Will Leander Parrish, an Arkansas sharecropper, moved to Memphis, Tenn., during the Depression in search of a better life.
Each morning, at about 4:30 A.M., Will would rise, eat breakfast, get dressed, and reach for a pair of worn work boots.
“I was told his boots didn’t have soles, so he had to put wire mesh into his boots,” his grandson told a crowd of more than 500 at the Hilton Anatole hotel on November 8.
“He didn’t have shoestrings; he had to use wire. He had to take pliers to tie his shoes.”
Then, Will Parrish would make the daily 30-minute walk along the Wolf River, ensuring he would be the first worker at the gravel pit.
That’s because the foreman set out shovels equal to the number of workers he needed each morning.
Sometimes, he only set out one shovel.
“He eventually bought books and taught himself to be a carpenter,” Parrish said of his grandfather. “…I stand on his shoulders. He didn’t have to make that walk every day, but he did.”
The Linz Award recognizes community involvement and humanitarian efforts that have significantly impacted Dallas in the last decade. It’s presented by The News, the Communities Foundation of Texas, and the Dallas Foundation.
Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, who died last December, nominated Parrish.
“I’m honored,” Parrish told her, “but I think it’s a long shot.”
It wasn’t.
“When I made the phone call four or five months ago, he was speechless because he never expected to win,” said Grant Moise, CEO of Dallas News Corporation and publisher and president of The Dallas Morning News.
“Linz awards winners are people who helped shape this city into one of the leading cities in the United States and globally.”
Simon Linz, a founder of Linz Jewelers, created the award in 1924. It has been presented yearly, except for five years during the Great Depression.
Past honorees include Rev. Zan Holmes, Maltrice Ellis-Kirk, H. Ross Perot, Stanley Marcus, and Woodall Rogers.
“It’s not how high you go, it’s who you take with you,” said Terry Flowers, CEO of St. Phillip’s School and Community Center in south Dallas.
“I hold you up before our students all of the time because you turned success into significance. That differs from a lot of people who turn their success into an exit out of the community. That didn’t happen with Roland Parrish.”
Parrish opened his first restaurant in the Pleasant Grove section of Dallas in 1989.
These days, Parrish is the second largest Black McDonald’s franchisee. His restaurants project to earn $125 million in revenue next year.
For the past five years, the Dallas Business Journal has ranked Parrish Restaurants as the No. 1 regional Black-owned business based on sales and employees.
Parrish has grown the business slowly but steadily, using a simple approach that encourages and rewards loyalty.
“For 35 years, God has used him as a business leader to impact so many,” Concord church pastor Bryan Carter said. “He has built businesses but more important he has built people.
“Parrish restaurants employ more than 1,300 people, providing jobs and training and development and opportunities His restaurants have been a fixture in our community. A place for connections, a place for families, a place for your relationships.”
His foundation does little fundraising aside from an annual golf tournament. Parrish’s business success fuels his charity work.
As a condition for opening his first restaurant, McDonald’s asked Parrish to donate $500 to charity. As an active member of the community, Parrish saw money as a tool to help others.
“I began to divert funds to help the community. I put $50 aside – I put a lot more aside now – and when a church, football team, or cheerleaders came in, I had access to some resources,” Parrish said.
“If someone comes to me and I think it’s a good idea, and we can afford it, that’s what I do.”
In 2016, Parrish created his charitable foundation.
Parrish and his children, Jade and Ro, run The Parrish Charitable Foundation. In 2023, the foundation gave away more than $370,000, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The son of a Baptist preacher, the Bible guides Parrish’s life. He lives by Luke 12:48: “…From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
“He has a heart as big as Texas and a soul to match. He really was one of the most successful businessmen in the history of McDonald’s,” said Dr. Bobby Lyle, chairman, president, and CEO of Lyco Holdings.
“He was very proud of what his family had achieved, and he wanted to pay it forward to make sure he could do whatever he could so the next generation and the next would have the opportunity to excel and fulfill his dreams just as he had.”
The Dallas Park and Recreation Board has honored Parrish with a new park in east Oak Cliff. Construction of the Roland G. Parrish Park in Cadillac Heights broke ground late last year.
Purdue University, where he competed in the 880-yard run and various relays and was twice named team MVP, named its business school library after him. The Parrish Charitable Foundation built and supported a medical clinic in Fort Portal, Uganda, that serves 6,000 orphans annually.
“My purpose is to help people,” he said. “God has given me many blessings so I can continue to help people.”
Parrish, an Hammond, Ind., native, explained the legacy he hoped to leave in his adopted hometown.
“Sometimes, I think about how I don’t know how long life is, but I look at the library at Purdue, the school at Fisk, the hospital named after my parents in Uganda, the Parrish Park,” said Parrish, his words filled with emotion, “and I say, God, let me see these things. I hope I’m around for a while.
“I hope people would look at those things and say he did some good things. He made a difference.”
