GAIL DRAKE: John Perry: Advocate, athlete, actor, hero

Sept. 11, 2001: a day forever etched in our memories. The day hijacked commercial airplanes slammed into the towers at New York’s World Trade Center as well as the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. The day New York City lost 343 firefighters and 71 law enforcement officers, who made the ultimate sacrifice to rescue thousands of civilians. Of the many heroic fallen officers from that fateful day, one standout was Officer John William Perry.

John Perry was not your garden-variety police officer. He was a graduate of New York University School of Law and practiced immigration law with a friend for a few years. A remarkable achievement for a boy diagnosed with learning disabilities, who could not tie his shoes, ride a bicycle or read until age 9. But he rose above it and his education flourished in middle school when he began to study languages. He became fluent in French, Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese and Russian, and was learning Albanian.

Perry left his law practice and enrolled at the police academy. He was appointed to the NYPD on Aug. 30, 1993 and began his career on patrol in the Central Park Precinct. He later worked in the Manhattan Traffic Task Force as well as the Department Advocate’s Office, investigating and disciplining police officers’ infractions.

He was an athlete. He ran three marathons and participated in a swim around Manhattan. Every New Year’s Eve he participated in the Central Park Midnight Run.

He was a part-time actor, appearing in several films including “Die Hard III”, “Devil’s Advocate”, and television shows “NYPD Blue” and “One Life to Live” among others. He volunteered one day a week as an investigator for the Kings County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He served on the board of the New York Civil Liberties Union. He collected bulletproof vests from retired officers and delivered them to officers in Moscow. He was an atheist who had recently converted to Judaism. His colleagues knew him as one who lived his life to the fullest.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Perry was at 1 Police Plaza, off-duty, filing his retirement papers, with a job waiting for him at a Manhattan law firm. When the first plane hit the North Tower, he turned to his supervisor and said, “I want to help – what can I do?” He retrieved his shield, quickly bought a polo shirt with the NYPD logo and ran the few blocks to the North Tower lobby.

Perry and other officers steered office workers away from the plaza, with debris and bodies falling outside, to a safe exit stairwell. One woman complained of chest pains and couldn’t go on. Perry and two other officers took her arms and tried to help her out of the building. Then they heard what sounded like Niagara Falls. It was the South Tower collapsing, with a “wind like a tornado … carrying debris and glass and soot,” said Pearson. “It was sheer pandemonium. There was a complete darkness. Windows shattered and parts of the floor collapsed.” Pearson and Morse separately escaped the tower just before it too collapsed, but never saw anything more of Perry or the woman he was helping.

“It was just part of John’s nature to be there,” said his mother, Patricia Perry, at his funeral. “This big man standing there, directing people to safety. It was the culmination of a lifetime of wanting to help.”

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.” Ecclesiastes 9:10

NYPD Officer John W. Perry, J.D., Shield 3266, 40 Precinct: An American Hero.

Lest we forget.