Stuart Perrin ’47

Stuart died Apr. 25, 1995, after a long battle with cancer. He was 75.

He came to Princeton in 1945 as a transfer student from Vanderbilt with three years of service in the Army Air Corps behind him. For 16 months during the war he was stationed in England as a B26 bomber pilot. One of the most decorated members of our class, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross twice, the Air Medal with twelve oak leaf clusters (for 60 missions over France, Holland, and Germany), and the Purple Heart. Stuart graduated from Princeton with high honors. Following in the footsteps of his father, who was a Presbyterian minister, he entered Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained by the Lake Erie Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in 1949.

In his long career, Stuart pastored Presbyterian churches in the Pennsylvania cities of Erie, Kane, Girard, Harrisburg, and Butler. In 1975 he resigned his pastorate at St. Andrews in Butler and joined the Presbyterian Church of America. He founded the Presbytery of the Ascension of this new denomination. He was also the organizing pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Butler. After retiring from the pastorate in 1983, he served as pastor emeritus of Westminster Church.

A distinguished churchman, Stuart will be greatly missed. To his wife, the former Romaine Erikson, whom he married in 1942, and to their children, the Rev. Daniel Perrin, Susan Rooke, and Elizabeth Dalbey, the class extends its profound sympathy.

The Class of 1947