Dr. Herbert M. Perr, Former Rockville Centre Resident, Dies at 94

Dr. Herbert M. Perr, a highly respected Long Island physician who practiced initially as an internist and then was a psychiatrist for nearly four decades, died peacefully with his family at his side on Nov. 7 after a long illness. He was 94.

Perr and his wife of 68 years, Miriam (Mimi) Adler Perr, had lived in Jefferson’s Ferry in South Setauket for the past 12 years after spending 54 years in Rockville Centre.

Perr was born in Newark, N.J., on Nov. 5, 1921. He earned a BA from New York University in 1941, and graduated from Tulane Medical School in 1945. He served in the Navy during World War II. In 1950 he opened a private practice in internal medicine. After stateside duty during the Korean War, he decided to specialize in psychiatry, completed his residency and board certification and opened his private practice. He retired in 1995.

A graduate of the Karen Horney Institute, Perr was certified to practice psychoanalysis and taught at the American Institute for Psychoanalysis and the New School for Social Research. From 1969 into the 1980s, he served as medical director of South Nassau Communities Hospital’s Outpatient Mental Health Clinic in Oceanside, which he had helped establish. He became chief of the department of psychiatry in 1971. Perr was a faculty member of the department of psychiatry at Stony Brook University Medical School from 1972 to 1980, and was a faculty member of the Horney Institute.

A humanist and lifelong peace activist, Perr had a strong sense of moral justice and an unwavering commitment to the individual. He founded a local chapter of the Society for Individual Responsibility and was active in Physicians for Social Responsibility. Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, in concert with Adler Perr, he marched to protest the Vietnam War and nuclear proliferation. With the dedication and creativity of a scientist, he always sought clarification and data and loved inventing and fixing all manner of things. “I have an idea,” he would say.

Perr loved music, played the recorder and the violin, and frequently attending classical concerts with his wife. He was a talented photographer and had a number of solo exhibits, receiving numerous awards. He enjoyed biking and playing tennis. A true renaissance man, he was gifted in many areas, yet retained a sense of humility. He was also known for his sense of humor and puns.

In addition to his wife, Mimi, survivors include: daughter Barbara Perr Schenendorf, MSW, and son-in-law Ronald Schenendorf, MD; son Norman Perr, MD, and daughter-in-law JoAnne Bessette, MD; daughter Jane Perr, MD; grandson Jesse Schenendorf, MD, and his wife, Erica Miller, MD.

Donations may be made in his memory to the Jefferson’s Ferry Foundation in South Setauket (www.jeffersonsferry.org/foundation.html), which supports Long Island’s elder community. No memorial services were announced.