Bernadotte Perrin papers

Bernadotte Perrin, B.A. 1869.

Born September 15, 1847, in Goshen, Conn.

Died August 31, 1920, at Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Bernadotte Perrin was the son of Rev. Lavalette Perrin (B.A. 1840), a Congregational minister, and Ann Eliza (Comstock) Perrin, and was born in Goshen, Conn., September 15, 1847. His father was at one time associate editor of the Religious Herald of Hartford, and served from 1882 until his death in 1889 as a member of the Yale Corporation. He was the son of Aaron and Lois (Lee) Perrin, and the grandson of Thomas Perrin (or Pering), who came from England to Massachusetts in 1690, removed in 1709 to Lebanon, Conn., and later settled at Hebron, Conn. The family is of French-Huguenot descent, Bernadotte Perrin's given name being that of one of the marshals of Napoleon's army who was later King of Sweden. John Porter, who settled at Windsor, Conn., in 1639, was also an ancestor on the paternal side. Ann Eliza Comstock Perrin's parents were William and Ann (Keeler) Comstock. She traced her descent to William Comstock, who came from Culmstock, Devonshire, England, to Watertown, Mass., in 1635 or 1636, later settled at Wethersfield, Conn., and subsequently moved to New London.

In his Sophomore year at Yale he won two first prizes in English composition, receiving a second prize in the same subject in his Senior year. His appointments were a Latin oration in Junior year and a philosophical oration in Senior year. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

He spent the first year after graduation teaching in the Hartford Public High School, where he had been prepared for college. He attended Yale Divinity School the following year, and was a graduate student in philology at Yale from 1871 to 1873, tutoring in Greek for one term. He was given the degree of Ph.D. in 1873. He was appointed tutor in Greek in September of that year, but left New Haven the next fall to become assistant principal of the high school in Hartford. He resigned this position in May, 1876, and went abroad for study, continuing his work in philology at Tübingen, Leipsic [sic], and Berlin until August 1878, when he again became a tutor at Yale. In 1879 he resumed his former position in Hartford, but resigned in 1881 to accept the professorship of Greek at Western Reserve College (now Adelbert College, Western Reserve University). He spent the summer of 1887 in study and travel abroad, and was in England and Greece from January to September, 1890, devoting part of this time to the study of Greek archaeology. In April, 1893, he was appointed professor of Greek at Yale, and served in that capacity until 1909, when he was made professor emeritus. He was named the first Lampson professor of the Greek language and literature in 1901, the title being changed in 1902 to Lampson professor of Greek literature and history. He served as public orator of the University from 1898 to 1908. Western Reserve University conferred the degree of LL.D. upon him in 1893. He was editor of Caesar's Civil War, school edition (1882); Homer's Odyssey, Books I-IV (with Professor T. D. Seymour; 1897); Twentieth Century Text Books, Classical Section (with John H. Wright of Harvard and Andrew F. West of Princeton; 1901-04); an English translation of six of Plutarch's Greek Lives (1901-1912); and a complete translation of Plutarch's Lives in eleven volumes for the Loeb Classical Library (1914-1920). He had frequently contributed articles on Greek and Roman history and literature to scientific journals. During 1904-05 he lectured at the American School in Athens, of which he was one of the managers. He was a member of Connecticut State Commission of Sculpture, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as president of the American Philological Association in 1897. He was a member of the Church of Christ in Yale College, and had held office as president of the Graduates Club of New Haven.

He died suddenly, of organic heart disease, August 31, 1920, at the home of his brother-in-law, General James W. Lester (B.A. Union 1881), at Saratoga Springs, N. Y. Interment was in Grove Street Cemetery, New Haven.

Professor Perrin was married August 17, 1881, in Lafayette, Ind., to his second cousin, Luella, daughter of James Joel Botts and Margaret Neil (Cason) Perrin, whose death occurred July 25, 1889. He was married a second time November 23, 1892, at Saratoga Springs, to Susan, daughter of Judge Charles Smith Lester, who received the honorary degree of M.A. from Yale in 1854, and Lucy Louisa (Cooke) Lester. She survives him with his two sons by his first marriage, Lee James, '06, and Lester William, '08. Among his Yale relatives were Samuel A. Galpin, '70, John O. Perrin, '79, William H. Perrin, ex-'79, James H. Perrin, '95, Henry L. Galpin, '02, Hervey B. Perrin, '07, John B. Perrin, '09, and Perrin C. Galpin, '10.

(Taken from Yale Obituary Record ).