Frederic Ira Parke graduated from the University of Utah with a BS degree in physics in 1965. He was then a graduate student of theUniversity of Utah College of Engineering where he received his MS (1972) and PhD (1974) in computer science.
In 1971 in a project partially financed by DARPA Parke made the first 3D animation of a representation of a human face, his wife's face. This animation was wireframe graphics underneath but used the now classic Gouraud shading that estimates curving surfaces that was invented this year by computer scientist Henri Gouraud.
In 1974, he created a more complex, parametric model of an human face, demonstrating various expressions, and an speech synchronization. . Snippets of this animation along with earlier Ed Catmull's 1971 animation of his left hand were later used in the 1976 film Futureworld.
He has worked at the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Laboratory.
Parke currently teaches at Texas A&M University in the Visualization Sciences program.