Carroll Perry, son of Arthur Latham Perry and Mary Brown (Smedley) Perry, was born in Williamstown on February 2, 1869. He was schooled at the Williamstown public schools and then attended Phillips Andover
Academy. He graduated from Williams College in 1890 with a BA and went on to Yale to receive a Bachelor of Divinity in 1894.
In 1896 he was ordained as an Episcopal priest and moved from church to church in New England until in 1920 when he became the rector at The Church of the Ascension in Ipswich, Massachusetts. It was here that Carroll Perry would spend the rest of his life.
In 1898 he married Grace Hawley Underwood and with her had three children: Theodora, Carroll Jr., and a third son that died at birth. Carroll was known for his biography of his father, A Professor of Life.
Carroll’s death came as a surprise to everyone who knew him. In 1937 he resigned as rector of his church
and had a nervous breakdown. On October 2, 1937, while traveling west with his wife to visit her sister in Los Angeles, he jumped out of a tenth story hotel window and died on impact.His suicide rocked the Williams community. He had been scheduled to give the invocation at the induction of President James P. Baxter.
By Patrick J. McCurdy (Class of 2002)
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