Lewis Perry Explained

Lewis Perry
Office:7th Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy
Predecessor:Harlan Page Amen
Successor:William Gurdon Saltonstall
Termend:1946
Termstart:1914
Birth Date:January 3, 1877
Birth Place:Williamstown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Death Date:January 27, 1970
Death Place:Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Alma Mater:Williams College
Princeton University

Lewis Perry (January 3, 1877 – January 27, 1970) was an American educator and the eighth principal of Phillips Exeter Academy.

Lewis Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts on January 3, 1877, to Arthur Latham Perry, a prominent economist, and Mary Brown Perry.[1] He attended Lawrenceville School as well as Phillips Academy for one year,[2] then Williams College, where he graduated in 1898. In Williams, he was the national president of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, of which his father helped found the Williams branch.[3] He was also the first student to be awarded the Rogerson Cup award, the "highest award for alumni service" at Williams.[4] He then attended Princeton University, where he earned an M.A. and a L.H.D degree. From 1901 to 1914, he taught English at Williams. In 1914, he became principal of Exeter. It was under Perry in 1919 that the Exeter Summer program was created.[5] It was also under him that philanthropist Edward Harkness donated to the school $5.8 million to create the Harkness table teaching method in 1930.[6] He retired in 1946.

Over his lifetime, he was awarded honorary L.H.D. degrees by Dartmouth, Yale, Amherst, the University of New Hampshire, and Harvard.[7]

Family

Perry first married Margaret Hubbell (1881-1928), with whom he had a daughter and a son. He later married Hubbell's sister, Juliette Adams, whose two daughters from her first marriage, Juliette and Margaret, became his stepdaughters. He died on January 27, 1970, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania[8] and is buried in the Williams College Cemetery in Williamstown, Massachusetts.[9]

See also his brother Bliss Perry, who was a noted professor of literature at Harvard.

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Lewis Perry (1877-1970). Collections. Williams College Archives & Special. archives.williams.edu. 2017-06-13.
  2. Book: Fuess, Claude Moore. Claude Fuess

    . An Old New England School: A History of Phillips Academy Andover. 114. lewis perry .. Claude Fuess. 1917. Houghton Mifflin. en.

  3. Web site: Lewis Perry (1877-1970). Collections. Williams College Archives & Special. archives.williams.edu. 2017-06-13.
  4. News: Lewis Perry, Class of 1898. Alumni Awards. 2017-06-13. en-US.
  5. Web site: Exeter Summer Phillips Exeter Academy. www.exeter.edu. 2017-06-13.
  6. Book: A Declaration of Readers' Rights: Renewing Our Commitment to Students. 2008. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. 9780205499793. en.
  7. Web site: Lewis Perry (1877-1970). Collections. Williams College Archives & Special. archives.williams.edu. 2017-06-13.
  8. News: Dr. Lewis Perry, Ex‐Principal Of Phillips Exeter, Dead at 93. 1970-01-28. The New York Times. 2017-06-13. en-US. 0362-4331.
  9. Photo of his gravestone on the Find-A-Grave site.|https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183592655/lewis-perry