Todd Parnell

Inducted into the Missouri Writers Hall of Fame in 2012, Todd Parnell has published three nonfiction books, The Buffalo, Ben, and Me; Mom at War; and Postcards from Branson. He recently completed his first works of fiction, the Ozarkian Folk Tales Trilogy, published by Pen-L Publishing. He is the sixth generation of his family to grow up and reside in the Ozarks and has devoted much of his life to exploring and preserving Ozarks waters.

Parnell served as President of Drury University for six years after retirement as founding CEO of THE Bank in Springfield, Missouri. He is cofounder of the Upper White River Basin Foundation and the recently retired chairman of the Missouri Clean Water Commission. He earned a masters degree in history from Missouri State University in 2010, with a concentration in Ozarks Studies, as well as an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth University and a BA from Drury University.

In his own words, “I’ve had great fun writing about the Ozarks and tackling important contemporary issues in that rich and captivating context. He is hard at work on a second trilogy of Ozarkian Folk Tales, Children of the Creek.

Parnell and his wife of forty one years, Betty (Squires), reside in Springfield and are blessed with four children and five grandchildren