MindStillRacingintheStreet: The Renaissance Man

Police Officer John William Perry served the people of New York City with honor and pride from his post in the 40th Precinct in the Bronx from the time he was appointed to the NYPD in 1993. The path that had led him to the NYPD might have been a bit more unconventional than that of his fellow officers. He was truly a renaissance man.

As a small child in Brooklyn, he was diagnosed with a learning disability, which he not only overcame, he eviscerated. He began studying French in the eighth grade. By the time of his death he spoke it, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and Portugese (among others) and was learning Albanian. He graduated from NYU Law School, passed the New York Bar, and practiced as an immigration law specialist before applying to the Police Academy. He was an actor - taking parts in movies and TV shows that filmed in and around New York, such as NYPD Blue. He volunteered his time as an investigator for the Kings County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

On that that terrible Tuesday morning twenty Septembers ago, Police Officer John William Perry's morning began at 1 Police Plaza (a/k/a "the Puzzle Palace"). He was off-duty and was a 1 PP filling out his retirement papers. He was off to begin his next career: a medical malpractice attorney at a Manhattan law firm. While he was there, he learned of the first plane striking the North Tower. He stopped filling out his papers, and in spite of being off-duty, raced with all due speed to the World Trade Center. He apparently was not wearing any clothing or uniform that identified him as an NYPD officer, so he bought a golf shirt with the NYPD logo on it, which he put on as he headed over to the Twin Towers.

Officer Perry was working with other officers to evacuate people from the Towers at the moment the South Tower collapsed. He and his friend, NYPD Deputy Inspector Timothy Pearson were helping a woman who, upon descending the stairwell to the North Tower's lobby, viewed the horror of the plaza outside the building, and had become paralyzed by panic. She could not go on. Perry and Pearson each took an arm and started guiding her out of the building. As they did, the South Tower collapsed. Pearson would later describe what happened, "A wind like a tornado came at us, carrying debris and glass and soot. It was sheer pandemonium. There was complete darkness. Windows shattered and parts of the floor collapsed."

Deputy Inspector Pearson never again saw Officer Perry or the woman the two were helping to safety.

Police Officer John William Perry was thirty-eight years old.