Background
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died in Denton, Texas. His mother was Bernice Perew (maiden name Strahan) and his father was Robert Jackman Perew.
He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died in Denton, Texas. His mother was Bernice Perew (maiden name Strahan) and his father was Robert Jackman Perew.
He graduated from Lafayette High School (Buffalo), New York in 1941, then attended Yale University where obtained a degree in mechanical engineering.
Robert lived in Buffalo, New York and West Palm Beach, Florida during his youth. Midway through his college career he served in the United States. Navy. Perew was commissioned as the communications officer on the submarine the United States Ship Thornback (Steamship-418).
After serving in the Pacific during World World War II, he returned to Yale where he graduated as part of the class 45W in 1949.
He began rowing at Buffalo"s historic West Side Rowing Club while still in high school. During college he was on the Yale crew and also on the United States. team Rowing at the 1948 Summer Olympics.
His event, the Men"s Coxless Fours, took the bronze medal for their race. Robert always claimed they could have taken the gold except they thought there was a false start by the German team and hesitated for a second, thus they only placed third at the finish line.
Rowing in this event were Gregory Gates, Stuart Griffing, Frederick Kingsbury, and Robert Perew.
His career included work at General Electric, Electric Boat -a division of General Dynamics, and York International. He always enjoyed boating and lived near Long Island Sound in Waterford, Connecticut for over 40 years. Robert died on November 14, 1999 in Denton, Texas where he resided from 1996-1999 near his daughter"s family.
He was a member of the Yale-Harvard Regatta committee until the year he died and never missed this annual event.