Roland is highly committed to giving back to the community, especially causes that support the education and welfare of youth.

Parrish is currently CEO of Parrish Restaurants, Ltd, which owns and operates 27 restaurants in Dallas and surrounding areas. The Dallas Business Journal ranks his company the 4th Largest Minority-Owned Firm in North Texas. Parrish Restaurants Ltd, consistently makes the Black Enterprise Magazine’s BE 100 as one of the Top 100 Black-owned businesses in the United States.

Parrish and McDonald’s Corporation have built over 17 new restaurants in economically challenged inner-city locations providing entry-level jobs for young people. He opened his first restaurant in Pleasant Grove on Juneteenth 1989 (3 years after being rejected as a franchise applicant).

Roland’s $2M Leadership Gift supported the renovation of the former Management School Library at Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana. It was opened and renamed the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management and Economics in 2012. It’s the first facility at Purdue to be named after an African American.

Also, his global gift of philanthropy led to the building of the Rev. John and Marie Parrish Medical Clinic in Fort Portal, Uganda. The clinic, which opened in May of 2016, serves 6,000 orphans per year and is named in memory of his parents.

At Fisk University, the construction of The Parrish Innovation & Career Development Center reflects his commitment to our youth and to the countless generations of Fisk students. His Leadership Gift will fund the first newly constructed building at Fisk since 1973. Planned completion mid-2022.

Since 2003, Parrish has hosted the annual “McMiracle On Highway 67” in December. In 17 years, over 3,000 students have received bikes and helmets at the cost of $315,800. Also at this event for the past 5 years, 2 police patrol bikes have been donated to the Dallas Police Department.

Parrish has supported the St. Mark’s School of Texas, in their annual fundraising efforts to feed the homeless at the Austin Street Center Shelter, in South Dallas since 2010.

Parrish has partnered with DISD and the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance to create and fund city-wide debates and flo-poetry competitions that award scholarships to the winners.

Parrish is the 2nd largest investor in the Re-Imaging Red Bird Project which will bring a Marriot Hotel and hundreds of jobs to the Red Bird community in Oak Cliff.

U.S. Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency awarded Parrish the “Minority Business Enterprise of the Year” in 2017.

Roland received his BS and MBA from Purdue’s Krannert School of Business. As a scholar and athlete, he consistently made the Dean’s List, was a 2-time MVP of the Purdue track team and selected by his teammates to be Captain his senior year.

He serves on Advisory Councils for the Salvation Army and the NBA Dallas Mavericks. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Fisk University and recently joined the Methodist Health Systems Foundation Board of Trustees.

Married to Jewel for 40 plus years, sons, Rowland (UNT-BA 2002), Wesley (CAI-BA 2013) and daughter Jade (Purdue BS 2012). Hobbies include running, biking, reading, playing musical instruments and collecting vintage automobiles.