Henry Augustus Perkins was a professor of physics at Trinity College and was acting president of the College on two occasions in the early twentieth century.

Perkins on his bicycle ca. 1946. Photo credit: Trinity College Alumni News

Henry Augustus Perkins (1873-1959) was born in Hartford near the Mark Twain House. Perkins graduated from Yale and received his Master's Degree and his Electrical Engineering Degree from Columbia University. He was hired as a faculty member at Trinity in 1902 and served as acting president twice: from 1915-16 and from 1919-20. Towards the end of his career at Trinity, he was the head of the Physics and Engineering departments. When he first came to Trinity, he was one of the youngest professors. Due to this, he grew a beard to distinguish himself from the students, which he kept his entire life. Perkins was the first professor at Trinity without a Ph.D. Even though Perkins had one of the first cars on campus (a 1903 Oldsmobile), he was more often seen riding his bicycle, and several other professors believed he didn't know how to drive. Perkins played 14 instruments, including the zither, flute, clarinet, and trombone. His hobbies included tennis, golf, painting, collecting stamps, sailing, riding horses, and dancing. He served as the Chairman of the Board of the American School for the Deaf, the Avon Farm School, and the Hartford Public Library.

Perkins' Grave at Cedar Hill Cemetery. Photo credit: Find A Grave

After President Flavel Sweeten Luther attempted to resign in 1915 after a dismal financial year, Trinity did not accept his resignation in the hope that he would return and chose Perkins as acting President. According to his daughter, during Perkins' first reign as President, he was visibly stressed and often withdrawn. During his first term, the Volstead Act was passed, prohibiting alcohol in the U.S. Perkins noted that he felt the students drank more during the prohibition era than before. Perkins' first term ended when Luther returned to the college in the spring of 1916.

Perkins' second presidential term came after the retirement of President Luther in 1919. Before this term, Perkins was serving as the Jarvis Professor of Physics. His most notable act as president was to request that students not from Hartford be allowed to not reside on campus due to a lack of residential space. Another affair during his second term occurred when Perkins advised Northam Professor of History Edward Frank Humphrey to resign due to controversy around his blunt behavior and his quarrels with other faculty members. Humphrey did not resign, and after a large media debate, stayed on Trinity faculty until he reached the mandatory age of retirement. In 1920, Perkins returned to professorship after President Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby took office in July.

Perkins retired in 1942 but returned to the college the following year after the death of his succeeding Jarvis Professor of Physics Arthur R.P. Wadlund, Class of 1917. Perkins died in 1959 at the age of 85 from an illness that began after he suffered a stroke in 1955. At the time of his death, he was the longest-serving member of the American Alpine Club, having been a member for 56 years. Perkins was survived by his son, Henry A. Perkins, Jr., his daughter, Evelyn Ames, and four grandchildren.

Trinity College in the Twentieth Century: A History (2000) by Peter and Anne Knapp, pp. 60-139.

History of Trinity College (1967) by Glenn Weaver, pp. 260-287.

The American Alpine Club Journal, 1960

The Trinity Tripod, 10/07/1959.

Trinity College Alumni News, July 1946.