He was born on December 26, 1855 at Stoneham, Massachussets, United States, a son of Benjamin M. and Elizabeth (Kittredge) Perry. His father, a cordwainer, was of a family identified with the leather trade of that region; his mother, a second wife, who was married at Mont Vernon, October 1, 1844, was a descendant of John Kittredge, who in 1660 settled in the Shawshin district of what was then Billerica, Massachussets.
After elementary education at Stoneham Walter entered the Massachusetts Normal Art School, now the Massachusetts School of Art, which in the eighteen seventies had introduced at Boston the methods used at South Kensington, England, of coordinating art and industrial training. Its courses gave Perry a lifelong interest in architecture.
After studies he served as a draftsman with Langerfeldt, Higgins & Pierre Millet. A friendship sprang up between him and Louis Prang, publisher and originator of the Prang method of teaching art in the public schools, one of whose writers Perry became. This connection resulted in his entering what was then a new profession, that of supervisor of art teaching in the public schools. In 1875 he became director of drawing in the day and evening schools of Fall River, Massachussets, and in 1879 he undertook successfully similar work at Worcester.
In 1887 Charles Pratt, capitalist and philanthropist of Brooklyn, New York, seeking outstanding talent for Pratt Institute, had his attention directed to Perry's teaching at Worcester, and soon after invited him to be the first director of the Pratt Institute school of fine and applied arts. This was opened in October 1887, with twelve students. Perry, in his "Reminiscences of Mr. Charles Pratt", quoted the founder's remark: "It is so much better to be prepared for, and to do the best by a few, than to advertise the Institute, get a large number here and not be able to do the right thing by all. " He retired in 1928.
His observations of the impact of art on the religion and daily life of ancient peoples were embodied in magazine articles and his books: Egypt, the Land of the Temple Builders (1898), and With Azir Girges in Egypt (1913). Collaborating with John Spencer Clark and Mary Dana (Hicks) Prang, Perry was active in planning and writing the Prang drawing books, which, in face of some criticism from professional artists, were published to provide practical methods of imparting to children at least the rudiments of the arts of design. With the above-mentioned persons he prepared Notes on Egyptian Architecture and Ornament (1899) and Notes on Greek Architecture and Ornament (1899).
During his middle and later life he was prominent in connection with the Egypt Exploration Fund, the American Federation of Arts, the Art Alliance of America, the Rembrandt Club, and the Eastern Art Teachers' Association. He was a director of Madura College, India.
He died of pneumonia in "Elmcroft, " Stoneham.
Walter Scott Perry was the first director of the Pratt Institute school of fine and applied arts. During his administration Pratt Institute grow to an enrolment of 4, 000 and Perry's own department to more than 1, 500. In addition to his administrative work and teaching he did much public lecturing. Namely, he was the author of Teacher's Manual for the Prang Course in Drawing for Graded Schools (1898), and The Prang Elementary Course in Art Instruction (1898). Besides, he was an organizer of the American Federation of Arts.
During Perry's directorship he clung to the ideal of taking and holding only those students by whom "the right thing" could be done.
On July 2, 1902, he married Clara Fairfield, of Brooklyn, New York. Their summer home for many years was at "Elmcroft, " Stoneham. He had two children, Fairfield Scott and Walter Merton.
