PERRIN, (Edwin) Noel 1927-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE— See index for CA sketch: Born September 18, 1927, in New York, NY; died of Shy-Drager syndrome November 21, 2004, in Thetford Center, VT. Educator and author. Perrin was professor emeritus at Dartmouth College and an author best known for his essay collections about rural life in Vermont. An English major, he earned a B.A. from Williams College in 1949 and an M.A. from Duke University in 1950. A brief post at the New York City Daily News as a copy boy ended when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. During the Korean War he earned a Bronze Star. After the war, he worked from 1953 until 1956 as an associate editor for the periodical Medical Economics. Perrin was then hired to teach at the Women's College of the University of North Carolina (now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro), while completing an M.Litt. at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1958. In 1959 he joined the Dartmouth College faculty, where he became a full professor of English in 1964 and chaired the department from 1972 until 1975. His interest in environmental conservation also led to an appointment as adjunct professor of environmental studies in 1991, a year after he retired from teaching English. Also known as a book critic who wrote reviews for the New Yorker and a column for the Washington Post Book World, Perrin had a great love of reading and writing. He is best known for his essay collections about Vermont, including First Person Rural: Essays of a Sometime Farmer (1978), Second Person Rural: More Essays of a Sometime Farmer (1980), Third Person Rural: Further Essays of a Sometime Farmer (1983), and, finally, Last Person Rural (1991). His other, more recent, books include Solo: Life with an Electric Car (1992) and A Child's Delight (1997).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

New York Times, November 25, 2004, p. C10.

Washington Post, November 26, 2004, p. B6.