Richard Parsons graduated from San Jose State University in 1967 with a BA in Physical Science with a Chemistry Option and received his MA in 1968 with the same major.  He taught high school honors Chemistry, Physics, and Advanced Placement Chemistry for 35 years and was the Science Department chairman for 25 years in the Santa Clara Unified School District.  Mr. Parsons retired in 2000, but continued to teach Advanced Placement Chemistry part-time for another 5 years. In the early 80s, he co-authored an in-district course (text, lab book, teacher's guide) in Integrated Science. The course was taught in all district high schools for 15 years. Mr. Parsons became an author for CK-12 in June 2008 and now serves as CK-12's Chemistry domain expert.