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- from "The Boston Herald", 6 Mar 1931 (genealogybank.com)
KENT PERKINS DIES SUDDENLY
Herald Night Editor Since 1907, Victim of Heart Attack
Kent Perkins, for the last 24 years night editor of The Boston Herald, died suddenly yesterday in the home, 109 Queensberry street, Back Bay, in his 71st years. He had been at his desk in The Herald until two weeks ago, when he suffered a heart attack from which failed to rally. He was a native of Castleton, Vt., the son of Capt. Gridley Perkins, who died in 1861 while in action with the Union armies in the civil war. His great-grandfather, Selah Gridley Perkins, was the first president of Castleton Medical College of Castleton, Vt., and his grandfather, Joseph Perkins, was also president at one time of that institution. In 1881 he was graduated from Michigan University, where during his junior and senior years he was a member of the board of editors of the Chronicle, an undergraduate publication. That same year he joined the news staff of the New York Tribune, remaining there for a number of years, until 1900 when he became managing editor of the New York Press. He left that organization to become affiliated with the Hearst organization, and was identified with the Boston American until 1906. At one time when Thomas W. Lamont, now a partner in the firm of J.P. Morgan & Co., was a reporter, Mr. Perkins was his superior. Mr. Perkins often related how Lamont sought his advice whether to accept a business offer. Mrs Perkins urged him to take it, and Mr. Lamont went on his way to the Morgan partnership. They continued close friends. while with The Herald Mr. Perkins wrote several articles on the significance of the University of Michigan and the importance of med-West universities in developing the ideals and aims of New England. He was a student of Vermont's historical past and had contributed several articles to Collier's Weekly and the Christian Science Monitor. He is survived by his widow, Mrs. Josephine Perkins, and a son, Harold Kent Perkins of Worcester. Funeral services will at Castleton, Vt., tomorrow afternoon.
- from "The Boston Herald", 7 Mar 1931 (genealogybank.com)
THE LATE KENT PERKINS
The last Kent Perkins, who served The Herald loyally from early in the evening until 2 or 3 in the moning for a quarter of a century, possessed many of the qualities of the perfect night editor. He had an excellent sense of relative news values. His mind was precise. His memory of dates, names and places was remarkable. He wrote will, knew much, was a diligent student of history and economics, and was accurate and systematic first of all. From that apparent confusion and "chaos" which bewilder the casual inspector of a newspaper office, he was always able to emerge by early morning with an orderly presentation of the events of the last twenty-four hours. Many thousands of Herald readers to whom he was unknown even by name must have detected his sure touch in its columns. Mr. Perkins was as Yankee as his full name, Moss Kent Perkins, and, if it be possible, a Vermonter before he was an American. His grandfather and great-grandfather had been presidents of a Vermont medical school. More remote forebears had settled the country around Rutland. New England was in his soul. His education at the University of Michigan and his experience in New England had intensified his love for this corner of the world. The Herald sincerely mourns his death.
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