In Praise of Perry

Ralph Perry ’51 (right) received the 2007 Distinguished Alumni Service Award, named for Helen A. Papaioanou ’49 (left). Perry received the award in Pettengill’s Joan Holmes Perry ’51 Atrium — a space that honors Perry’s late wife — during Homecoming’s Volunteer Recognition Dinner. Perry was saluted for his philanthropy, for his “profound and passionate service to Bates,” and for helping “others understand that Bates is a very special place that needs strong support to preserve its future.”

Perry partnered his extensive philanthropy initially with Joan Perry, who died in 1994, and now with his second wife, Mary Louise Seldenfleur. It was Perry and Seldenfleur, in fact, who proposed using Perry Atrium to showcase high academic achievement, and in 2008 that showcase, the Mount David Summit, celebrates its seventh edition.