John Perry, 95, author, national zoo official
WASHINGTON - John Perry, 95, a former assistant director of the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and the author or coauthor, with his wife, of more than 25 books on natural history and ecology, died April 29 at his home in Winter Haven, Fla. He had complications related to Alzheimer's disease.
Mr. Perry, who also photographed and coproduced educational film strips about nature, was a lifelong lover of the outdoors, but his foray into nature writing and conservation began by accident.
Living in the District of Columbia in the 1960s and working as a management consultant, he was walking with his wife along the C&O Canal towpath one afternoon. Their young daughter, Gale, riding ahead of them on her bike, accidentally ran over a large copperhead snake. "Don't worry," she called back. "It's still alive."
Realizing that they had no idea what they would have done if she had been bitten by the poisonous snake, Mr. Perry sought advice from a friend who was a member of the fund-raising group Friends of the National Zoo. Not long afterward, Mr. Perry became active with Friends of the National Zoo and served as its second president. He also worked as a consultant for the organization.
In 1966, he became the zoo's assistant director and began traveling the world working on wildlife conservation issues. He retired in 1976.
Mr. Perry had been writing for years. "I'd been sending stuff out and getting rejection slips since I was 13," he told the Tampa Tribune in 1997. His books included "Our Wonderful Eyes" (1955), a science text for children.
By the mid-1970s, having traveled much of the world, Mr. Perry, with the assistance of his wife, Jane Greverus Perry, had written in his spare time more than 10 books dealing with nature and the environment, including "The World's a Zoo."
When he retired from the National Zoo, the couple decided to travel, explore, and write full time. A backpacking trip through the Pacific Northwest prompted them to write a series of travel guides, which became the Sierra Club Guide to the Natural Areas of the United States.
