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