Bert R. Parrott, a mechanical engineer and one of the directors of the Dorris Motors Corporation of St. Louis, was born in Mendon, Ohio, in December, 1873, his parents being Joseph J. and Harriet (Waters) Parrott. The father was a native of Virginia and was of French descent. The mother was born in Ohio belonging to one of the old families of Columbus, Ohio, whose founder was Mitchell Waters, the grandfather of Mrs. Parrott and recognized at one time as the merchant prince of that city. He established the first department store in that section of the country and in the course of years developed a business of mammoth proportions. The Waters family was of Scotch and English extraction. Mrs. Parrott died in 1908 at the age of sixty-four years and the death of Mr. Parrott occurred December 4, 1909, when he was seventy-eight years of age. He had followed farming and stock raising in Ohio for many years and during the last twenty-six years of his life lived retired in Battle Creek, Michigan. To him and his wife were born three sons and two daughters, of whom Bert R. Parrott is the fourth in order of birth.
In the public schools of Ohio and Michigan Bert R. Parrott pursued his early education and afterward studied in Battle Creek College at Battle Creek, Michigan. When eighteen years of age he took up the study of mechanical engineering with W. Q. Reynolds at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, a branch of Battle Creek College, Mr. Reynolds being chief engineer, in charge of both the mechanical and electrical engineering departments of the college. He studied there for some time and subsequently was with A. J. Wells, a large contractor of Battle Creek and of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He continued with the latter as construction engineer in the installation of electrical power plants for three years. He was afterwards with the Consolidated Engineering Company of Chicago in the installation of electric power and heating plants. In 1902 he became connected with the Buick Auto Company at Jackson, Michigan, and served in the engineering department for two years. He then established business on his own account under the name of the Parrott Engineering Company, doing general mechanical engineering, and for three years met with substantial success while conducting his interests under that name. He sold the business and removed to Detroit, becoming connected with the Vinton Company, general contractors and builders of large buildings and lake-going vessels. In 1907 he returned to the Buick Auto Company at Jackson, Michigan, in the production and engineering department, having charge of mechanical engineering for about fourteen months. He resigned to enter the employ of the Lewis Spring & Axle Company at Chelsea, Michigan, and later became chief engineer and one of the organizers of the Parrott Tractor Company of Jackson, thus re-entering business on his own account. After three years he embraced the opportunity for an advantageous sale and became connected with the Standard Electric Car Company of Jackson, Michigan, in which he had charge of the engineering and sales departments. He resigned to associate himself with the Jackson Auto Company, with which he remained for two years. In 1916 he became chief engineer of the Highway Tractor Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, but upon America’s entrance into the World war he removed to St. Louis and became chief engineer of the One Wheel Truck Company of St. Louis. He was later made sales manager for the National Tool & Manufacturing Company of St. Louis and likewise became connected with the sales and advertising department of the Inland Machine Works of St. Louis, of which he was elected a director. In the fall of 1919 he reorganized the Dorris Motors Corporation and became president thereof. This office he filled until February 16, 1920, when he resigned to devote his attention to private practice as a mechanical engineer, although he remains as a director of the Dorrid Company, which has large foreign contracts as well as extensive orders from different parts of America. Mr. Parrott, however, has a deep interest in and love for his profession, in which he has been most thoroughly trained through college work, through experience and through study, and he is planning to devote his entire attention to professional duties.
In 1901 Mr. Parrott was married to Miss Mina M. Carson, a native of Galesburg, Michigan, and a daughter of Alonzo and Helen (Knapp) Carson. They became the parents of a son, DeWitt J. The wife and mother passed away in March, 1904, at Battle Creek, Michigan, when but twenty-four years of age and on the 7th of December, 1907, at Jackson, Michigan, Mr. Parrott was married to Miss Florence Draper, a native of that city and a daughter of Fred R. and Carrie (Goucher) Draper.
Politically Mr. Parrott is a republican where national questions and issues are involved but at local elections casts an independent ballot. He belongs to the Elks Lodge, No. 113, at Jackson, Michigan, but the major part of his time and attention is concentrated upon his business affairs. He has always manifested sound judgment in picking and associating himself with men who can assist him in carrying through his plans and his judicious advertising has been another element in his success. He has a pleasing personality that might be termed personal magnetism which always holds the attention of those to whom he is speaking and he never fails to demonstrate the correctness of his position upon any business or professional matter.