Evening star., 1943-03-21
Woman Beheues Solid Community Building
IS Foundation for Successful War Effort
Mrs. alter Perry
Modestly Performs
Many.Sided Jobs
By Lillian Arthur

II y LhffNH fHhy
If you should ask any one in
Bethesda who Mrs. Walter Perry
is you might get an answer some
thing like this:
Mrs. Perry? She lives here in
the neighborhood and she has her
finger in pretty nearly every COM
munity movement that will help
make living conditions better for
the rest of u.s.
But, if you ask Mrs. Perry her
self about her community activi-
ties, she will tell you that she
really does very little. She will
even argue with you to try to
prove that the credit for the sue
cess of the different projects on
which she Is working belongs to
the women who thought up the
program, and that all that she
has done has been to help other
women carry out their own ideas.
Mrs. Perry has way of giving
credit for what she does to some
one else-she is that kind of a
person.
Of course, she is interested in
the Bethesda Public Library, she
says-she is the president of the
Library Board; she is on the Ex-
ecutive Board of the Maternal
Welfare Association of Montgom-
cry County, and she is member
of the Board of Trustees of
Spring Grove Hospital for the
Insane. Mrs. Perry is the only
woman member of the board.
She is also a member Of the
Women's Auxiliary for the Mont
gomery County General Hospital
in Sandy Spring, she is one of the
directors of the Charter Commit
tee, which now is studying plans
for changes in the structure of
the county government, ano right
at the moment she is working on
the plans for the organization of
the Women's Board for the new
Suburban Hospital to be started
next month on the Whalen tract.
Mrs. Perry also is a member of
the Board of Trustees of the new
hospital, but she insists that she
is only one member of a board of
Is and that the other IA work as
hard as she does.
Mrs. Perry is a modest person,
but she is no mollycoddle, and
she will fight to the last ditch for
a program that she believes is
right. Those who have opposed
her know by experience that, al
though she is a fighter for a prin-
ciple, she fights fairly and comes
out of the argument with the
respect of her opponents.
Women who work with her say
that perhaps the secret of her
success in organization work is
that she always has an aim to
work toward and that she knows
almost instinctively whether or
not plan is workable.
Mrs. Perry's interest in COM
munity life and betterment grew
out Of her professional career.
She came into Montgomery
County as the executive secretary
Of the Montgomery County So
cial Service League to work with
community groups in welfare,
health and education projects.
After nearly IL years residence
here she still is working for COM
munity betterment. The only
difference in her status is that
now she does as volunteer what
she first did as a professional
worker.
Before she came to Bethesda,
Mrs. Perry was connected with
the Rockefeller Institute of New
York and she was at one time
associated with the National
Recreation Association.
In spite of all her work with
various organizations, Mrs. Perry's
first interest is her home. She
works in her flower garden, reads
little, mostly history and biog-
raphy, collects antiques, has oc-
casional guests in for dinner and
does the hundred and one things
that 60 to make up the average
woman's daily life.
These things are essential"
she says, because they furnish
the stimuli that enable me to put
so much effort into activities out
side my home"
Mrs. Perry has taken very little
part in outright war activities