Bureau of Study Counsel Founder Dies

William G. Perry '35, founder of the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC) and professor of education emeritus, passed away earlier this month. Perry, 84, died of pneumonia at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Perry created the BSC to bring together a variety of counseling services with a common mission under one roof. Under Perry, the BSC sought to use clinical psychology to address problems specific to college students. This approach remains in use at Harvard, and has been adopted by dozens of other colleges.

"He founded a remarkable and unique organization," said Charles P. Ducey, director of the BSC. Perry's "great charisma" convinced the Harvard administration to fund the BSC, according to Ducey.

Perry's research into the cognitive and personal development of students is summarized in his book Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years; a Scheme. Perry's work has been the basis of several current developmental psychology schemes, Ducey said.

Mary Perry, wife of the deceased, worked for him as a teaching fellow when she was a student at the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

"I thought his teaching at that point was remarkable," Mrs. Perry said. Her husband was hearing impaired, but it "was astonishing in the way he could listen to the students," she said.

Perry founded a course on counseling and psychotherapy at the GSE, said Ducey, who currently teaches a course which is similar in format and content to the one created by Perry.

Students in the course create mock-counseling sessions, then gather to discuss their experiences.

"He would pull [their observations] together in the most remarkable way I ever heard," Mrs. Perry said.

Perry was born in Paris, France, graduated from St. Mark's School and later received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from Harvard. In addition to his work in education, Perry published a translation of Homer's Iliad with Alston Hurd Chase in 1950.

According to his grandson, Brendan Frank of Boston, Perry was a "raconteur, sailor, an accomplished designer/carpenter and a man deeply committed to the conservation and enjoyment of the salt marshes of Massachusetts," as quoted in the Boston Globe.

In his 25th annual class report, Perry quoted a colleague's response to the assertion that services like the BSC help "problem students."

"But I never can recall having met many problem students," Perry wrote. "I think I shall take up the words of a colleague who became exasperated at the comment, 'I just don't see how you can sit there day after day listening to people's problems,' and replied, 'I don't listen to problems: I listen to courage in action."

The BSC helps people by using their experiences as a basis for its counseling, according to Ducey.

"[Perry] could actually get at the human aspect of counseling Mrs. Perry said.

Perry is survived by Mrs. Perry; a daughter, Lee Perry of Los Altos, Calif.; a stepson, Kevin Frank of Holderness, N.H.; and Brendan Frank.