Lewis Perry (January 3, 1877 – January 27, 1970) was an American

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

and the eighth principal of

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

. Lewis Perry was born in

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

on January 3, 1877, to

Arthur Latham Perry Arthur Latham Perry (February 27, 1830 – July 9, 1905), born in Lyme, New Hampshire, was a prominent American economist and advocate of free trade. He graduated from Williams College in 1852 and was Orrin Sage Professor of history and politic ...

, a prominent economist, and Mary Brown Perry. He attended

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Schoo ...

as well as

Phillips Academy ("Not for Self") la, Finis Origine Pendet ("The End Depends Upon the Beginning") Youth From Every Quarter Knowledge and Goodness , address = 180 Main Street , city = Andover , state = Ma ...

for one year, then

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

, where he graduated in 1898. In Williams, he was the national president of the

Alpha Delta Phi Alpha Delta Phi (), commonly known as Alpha Delt, ADPhi, A-Delt, or ADP, is a North American Greek-letter social college fraternity. Alpha Delta Phi was originally founded as a literary society by Samuel Eells in 1832 at Hamilton College in Cli ...

fraternity, of which his father helped found the Williams branch. He was also the first student to be awarded the Rogerson Cup award, the "highest award for alumni service" at Williams. He then attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

, 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. It was also under him that philanthropist

Edward Harkness Edward Stephen Harkness (January 22, 1874 – January 29, 1940) was an American philanthropist. Given privately and through his family's Commonwealth Fund, Harkness' gifts to private hospitals, art museums, and educational institutions in the Nort ...

donated to the school $5.8 million to create the

Harkness table The Harkness table, Harkness method, or Harkness discussion is a teaching and learning method involving students seated in a large, oval configuration to discuss ideas in an encouraging, open-minded environment with only occasional or minimal t ...

teaching method in 1930. He retired in 1946. Over his lifetime, he was awarded honorary L.H.D. degrees by Dartmouth,

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, Amherst, the

University of New Hampshire The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...

, and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

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 Bryn Mawr, pronounced , from Welsh for big hill, is a census-designated place (CDP) located across three townships: Radnor Township and Haverford Township in Delaware County, and Lower Merion Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It i ...

and is buried in the Williams College Cemetery in

.Photo of his gravestone on the Find-A-Grave site., https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183592655/lewis-perry See also his brother

Bliss Perry Bliss Perry (25 November 1860 – 13 February 1954), was an American literary critic, writer, editor, and teacher. Biography Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts to Arthur Latham Perry, a prominent economist, and Mary Brown Perry. He was ...

, who was a noted professor of literature at

References

Williams College alumni Princeton University alumni Phillips Exeter Academy faculty Lawrenceville School alumni 20th-century American educators 1877 births 1970 deaths {{US-edu-bio-stub

Family

Further reading

References