ACCESSION 
NUMBER:370474

FILE ID:ESX402

DATE:12/08/94

TITLE:DEFENSE SECRETARY WILLIAM J. PERRY (12/08/94)

TEXT:*94120802.ESX

1ESX402   12/08/94

DEFENSE SECRETARY WILLIAM J. PERRY

(Perry official biography) (550)

(The official biography of Defense Secretary William J. Perry was provided

by his office.)



Dr. William J. Perry was sworn in as Secretary of Defense on February 3,

1994, following a unanimous vote by the Senate.  He previously served as

Deputy Secretary of Defense from March 5, 1993, until his confirmation as

Secretary.  Prior to his nomination to these positions, he was the Chairman

of Technology Strategies Alliances, a professor in the School of

Engineering at Stanford University, and Co-Director of Stanford's Center

for International Security and Arms Control.



Dr. Perry was born October 11, 1927, in Vandergrift, Pa.  He attended Butler

High School, in Butler, Pa., graduating in 1945.  He received his B.S. and

M.S. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from Penn State, all in

mathematics.  He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a

fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.



From 1946 until 1947, Dr. Perry was a noncommissioned officer in the Army

Corps of Engineers, serving in Japan and Okinawa.  He joined the Reserve

Officer Training Corps in 1948 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in

the Army Reserves in 1950.  He remained in the reserves until 1955.



Dr. Perry's extensive experience as an entrepreneur includes being one of

the founders of ESL Inc., in 1964, and serving as its president until 1977.

 Prior to that, he was with Sylvania/General Telephone and was the Director

of their Electronic Defense Laboratories.  He has also served as Executive

Vice President of Hambrecht and Quist Incorporated, an investment banking

firm in San Francisco specializing in high technology companies.



From 1977 to 1981, Dr. Perry was Under Secretary of Defense for Research and

Engineering.  As Under Secretary, he was responsible for all weapon systems

procurement and all research and development.  He was the Secretary of

Defense's principal advisor on technology, communications, intelligence,

and atomic energy.



He received the Army's Outstanding Service Medal in 1977, the Department of

Defense's Distinguished Public Service Medal in 1980 and again in 1981, and

NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in 1981.  He was awarded the 1980 Medal

of Achievement by the American Electronics Association.  The Federal

Republic of Germany awarded him the Knight Commander's Cross in 1981, and

the French government conferred the Grand Officer de l'Ordre National du

Merite in 1982.  He received the James Forrestal Memorial Award for 1993 in

March 1994.



Dr. Perry has served as a director of FMC Corporation, United Technologies

Corporation, and a number of private companies.  He has also been a trustee

of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served on a number of

U.S. Government Advisory boards, including the President's Foreign

Intelligence Advisory Board and the Technical Review Panel of the U.S.

Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence.  He was a member of the Carnegie

Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, and the Committee on

International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Science.



His wife, Lee, is a CPA, formerly associated with the firm of Hemming and

Morse in San Mateo.  Secretary Perry and Mrs. Perry have two sons living in

the San Francisco area, a son and a daughter in the Washington, D.C. area,

and a daughter in New York.



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