We invite you to take a journey with us. A journey begun with daring individual tenacity and shaped by remarkable collective accomplishments. A journey peppered with hardships and decorated with soaring successes. A journey from a two-person enterprise to one of the greatest companies in the world.

It’s the story of Parker.

Welcome.

Art Parker founded the Parker Appliance Company in Cleveland, Ohio. The machine shop built pneumatic brake systems for trucks, trains, buses and industrial machinery.

Traveling to a trade show, a trailer carrying the Company’s entire inventory fell off a cliff east of Pittsburgh. Art was determined to rebuild.

Parker’s fuel system was on board Charles Lindbergh’s The Spirit of St. Louis for the first ever Transatlantic flight. So began Parker’s relationship with the aerospace industry that continues today.

Orders from the aviation industry helped Parker survive the Great Depression. For the rest of his life, Art was proud that despite hard times, employees received steady paychecks.

Parker bought the former Hupp Automobile plant, a 450,000 square-foot building on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland.

With 40 patents and sales of $3 million in 1939, Parker responded to World War II by focusing on just one customer—the U.S. government.

As a result, Parker grew from 910 employees in 1940 to 2,600 in 1941. Sales increased 700%.

Art Parker died suddenly on New Year’s Day. To keep the Company running, Helen Parker reinvested the proceeds from Art’s $1 million life insurance policy back into the Company. She hired new management and together they decided to diversify.

Parker acquired the Hannifin Company, a family-founded manufacturer of cylinders and valves. Now Parker could supply all the components in a fluid power system.

Parker’s stock hit the New York Stock Exchange. Within two years, Parker was part of the prestigious Fortune 500.

Pat Parker became Company president. He went on to lead the Company with the same innovative vision as his father.

Parker controls were used on every space mission, including the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

In 1970, Parker engineers worked around the clock with NASA to save the lives of the Apollo 13 astronauts. They devised a way to get oxygen from high-pressure storage to the spacecraft cabin.

Parker transformed its services with ParkerStores, which offer walk-up repairs, and Hose Doctors, who performed on-site maintenance.

Parker moved its global headquarters from a factory on Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland to a modern building on 34-acres in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

Don Washkewicz took over as president and COO and charted a new course for the Company with his innovative Win Strategy.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Parker donated much-needed products and services to help with the efficient removal and analysis of the debris.

Pat Parker passes away yet his spirit lives on.

Parker introduced a brand new strategy and tagline, “Engineering Your Success.” In this same year, the Company opened its 1000th ParkerStore.

Parker reorganized into seven groups and four global technology platforms. The move provided more transparency to investors and broadened awareness of Parker’s competitive strengths.

Parker elected Tom Williams its CEO and Lee Banks its president and COO. Together, they launched a refreshed Win Strategy.

Parker celebrated its 100th anniversary.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gives Parker clearance to market and sell the Indego® exoskeleton for clinical and personal use in the United States. Indego is a robotic exoskeleton or powered orthotic device that allows users to stand and walk and holds great promise for affording people with paraplegia a new level of independence.

The FDA’s clearance came following the completion of the largest exoskeleton clinical trial conducted to date in the U.S.