Perry B. Duryea Jr.

Perry Belmont Duryea, Jr. was Speaker of the NY State Assembly and the Republican candidate for Governor in 1978. Duryea, Jr. was born on October 18, 1921 in Montauk, New York. He married Elizabeth Ann (Weed) of Bronxville, New York and the couple raised their two children in Montauk where the family wholesale seafood business, Perry B. Duryea and Son, Inc., was located. Duryea graduated from East Hampton High School and earned his BA from Colgate University in 1942. He attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Air Transport Service and entered the family business full-time after World War II. Duryea began his career in public service as a member of the Montauk Public School Board of Education. He was president of the Long Island State Park Commission, Bethpage Park Authority, Jones Beach State Parkway Authority from 1963 through 1969 and a member of the Board of Trustees of Colgate University and Dowling College. Duryea was first elected as a Republican to represent the First Assembly District of the New York Legislature in 1960. He served as Minority Leader in the Assembly from 1966 through 1968 and Majority Leader from 1968 through 1972.

External Links

• Finding Aid for the Papers of Perry B. Duryea, Jr., M. E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives, University Libraries, University at Albany, SUNY.