Parkhurst graduated from Williams College in 1935. He earned a master’s degree from Oberlin in 1938 and then an M.F.A. from Princeton in 1941. During World War II, he served in the Navy, and as the war was ending he joined the Allied art-recovery effort.
From 1947 to 1949, Parkhurst was assistant professor of art and archaeology at Princeton and assistant director of the Princeton Art Museum. In 1949, he left to head Oberlin’s fine-arts department. From 1962 to 1970, he was director of the Baltimore Museum of Art. As president of the American Association of Museums from 1966 to 1968, he developed an accreditation system for museums. In 1970, he became assistant director and chief curator of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, from which he retired in 1983 and after which he taught and held museum positions at Smith College and at Williams.
Twice divorced, Parkhurst is survived by his third wife, Carol; three children from his first marriage; a daughter from his second marriage; and four grandchildren. A son from his first marriage died in 2003.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.