Dr. Parks Coble, Jr. He was awarded the ORCA in 2005. He was born in Waterloo, South Carolina in 1946 but he grew up in Columbia. He earned his bachelor’s in history at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. Next, he traveled 740 miles northwest to earn his doctorate from the University of Illinois in Champaign. In 1976, he became an assistant professor of history at the University of Nebraska, where he quickly rose through the ranks. His early work focused on the relationship between Chinese business elites and leaders of the Chinese National Government movement. From there, he moved on to complex relationship between China and Japan. In 2019, Parks was honored by the Association for Asian Studies with a roundtable discussion at its annual conference to celebrate “Parks Coble's important scholarly contributions to research in Chinese busi ...