Lewis Perry

Lewis Perry
7th Principal of Phillips Exeter Academy
In office 1914–1946
Preceded by	Harlan Page Amen
Succeeded by	William Gurdon Saltonstall
Personal details
Born	January 3, 1877 Williamstown, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 27, 1970 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. He attended Lawrenceville School as well as Phillips Academy for one year, 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. 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, 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 donated to the school $5.8 million to create the Harkness table teaching method in 1930. He retired in 1946.

Perry first married Margaret Hubbell, with whom he had a daughter and a son, who died in 1928. He then married Hubbell's sister, Juliette Adams, with whom he had two stepdaughters. He died on January 27, 1970, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Over his lifetime, he was awarded honorary L.H.D. degrees by Dartmouth, Yale, Amherst, the University of New Hampshire, and Harvard.

Further reading

• Lewis Perry of Exeter: A Gentle Memoir. By William Gurdon Saltonstall. Simon & Schuster, 1980.