Ron was the fourth son born to Guido R. and Faith P. Perera on Christmas day 1941. He grew up in Boston, attended Groton School and Harvard University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in music. Ron also served in the U.S. Navy.
Ron was a composer of music, and a professor of music at Smith College for 30 years, where he was named the Elsie Irwin Sweeney music department chair before retiring in 2002.
Ron credited his early musical passion to strong influences from both sides of his family. He studied music with Edward B. Gammons, Leon Kirchner, Randall Thompson, and Gottfried Michael Koenig. Ron’s many compositions include electroacoustic, instrumental and vocal composition, but his most characteristic works were those that set words to music. “He grasps the expressive world of each text and projects it immediately through the vividness of his musical gestures and images…” (Steven Ledbetter). Ron set texts by authors as diverse as Sappho, Updike, Dickinson, Melville, Grass, Francis of Assisi, Cummings, Beston, Frost, Dickey, Longfellow, Ferlinghetti, and Mary Oliver. His compositions have been published by E.C. Schirmer, Boosey & Hawkes, and his own Pear Tree Press.
Ron received awards or fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Paderewski Fund for Composers, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation, Harvard University, and ASCAP. Ron was instrumental in the creation of Thacher Hall, a secular community performance venue owned by the Yarmouth New Church Preservation Foundation. He was also a longtime parishioner at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Northampton, Massachusetts. In both settings Ron successfully campaigned to restore the organ.
In 1967 Ron married Judith (Jay) Weed, and they enjoyed 56 years together. Ron and Jay loved sailing on Ron’s catboat Ella Bray, and had countless travel adventures both local and abroad. They shared a love of history, books, and family. Ron was a devoted and encouraging father to their daughters Lisa, Katie, and Rosie, and brought great fun and humor to his family.
Ron was deeply and genuinely curious about many things, including each person he encountered. A long, thoughtful conversation was his signature, and his generous listening made everyone feel that they were the most important person in the room. Ron was passionate about his family history in the town of Yarmouth Port and he enjoyed British television mysteries, chocolate ice cream, and single malt scotch. He was a gifted writer who privately published biographies of both sets of grandparents and a memoir entitled My Musical Life. He loved playing the piano.
Ron is survived by his wife Judith (Jay), his daughter Lisa Denny Perera and son-in-law Gary Lowery of South Orange, NJ, his daughter Katherine (Katie) Perera Patterson and son-in-law Michael Patterson of Watertown, MA, and his daughter Rosalind (Rosie) Phillips Perera and her partner TC Tolbert of Tucson, AZ, as well as his four grandchildren Michael, Adam, Anna, and Harper. He is also survived by his brother Lawrence T. Perera, sisters-in-law Joan, Elizabeth, and Frederica Perera, and over 50 cousins, nieces, and nephews.
A funeral service will be held at St. Andrew’s by the Sea Church in Hyannis Port MA on August 15 at 11 a.m. A memorial service for Ron will also be held in Western MA in the upcoming months.
