UW-Whitewater commencement speaker Mark Perry reflects on his father’s legacy
December 01, 2025
Written by Dave Fidlin | Photos by Craig Schreiner and submitted
Mark Perry was never a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student. But the campus has long loomed large within his life.
The San Francisco resident is the son of Harold Perry, who graduated from UW-Whitewater in 1933 as a four-year letterwinner in both football and men’s basketball and was inducted into the Warhawk Athletics Hall of Fame in 1973.
“I know how much Whitewater meant to my dad,” Perry said, adding that his father frequently shared stories and anecdotes of his time as a Warhawk. “Throughout his life he had a lot of ‘touches’ with the university. It meant a lot to him.”
Harold went on to have a successful career that included stints as a college teacher and a coach, a role in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and, later, a lengthy career in business. Over the years he was recognized for his accomplishments, including being honored by the UW-Whitewater Alumni Association as a distinguished alumnus.
In 1958, Harold returned to the university as a commencement speaker, giving an address titled “Statesmanship in Education and Business.”
This December, Mark Perry will be following in his father’s footsteps, serving as commencement speaker at UW-Whitewater’s 2025 commencement ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 13.
For Perry, the opportunity to speak to UW-Whitewater graduates is an honor and a way of connecting with his father’s legacy on a deeper level. He recently toured the campus and witnessed parallels between today’s campus environment and the one his father experienced nearly a century ago.
Mark Perry, second from the right, visited the UW-Whitewater campus on Aug. 22, 2025, with, from left, Katie Kuznacic, vice chancellor for University Relations, his daughter Elise Miller, and his wife Mauree Jane Perry.
“My dad was a first-generation student and needed scholarships to attend,” Perry said. “When I visited the school this past summer, I hadn’t realized how many first-generation students still come to UW-Whitewater, and how impactful it is for those students.”
UW-Whitewater’s history of educating first-generation students is strengthened through generous acts of families such as the Perrys.
As Harold Perry was retiring in 1974, the foundation associated with his longtime employer, CIT Group, provided UW-Whitewater with a $10,000 gift to help create a scholarship fund that became known as the Harold M. Perry and Margaret A. Perry Scholarship Fund.
Perry said that upon the passing of his dad in 1996 and his mom, Margaret, in 1993 the family made a conscious decision to ask that all gifts go to the namesake scholarship fund. Subsequent gifts have been added to this fund; in the last decades, dozens of meaningful scholarships have been given to UW-Whitewater students.
Today, the family’s name endures on the university campus in another way: a $2 million gift in 2024 to the Harold M. Perry ’33 and Margaret A. Perry Endowed Faculty Chair provides resources to a selected UW-Whitewater faculty member or members to address complex issues, develop long-term solutions and positively impact Wisconsin’s economy. The first chair to be named is Jenni Petersen, professor of educational foundations.
Mark Perry, center, visited Old Main Lane on the second floor of the University Center with his wife, Mauree Jane, left, when he visited in August 2025.
Over the years, Perry said his father spoke favorably of UW-Whitewater for a number of reasons, including the overall philosophy of meeting students where they are at in life.
“If you do the math, my dad graduated from high school in 1927, so it took him six years to graduate (from UW-Whitewater) because he had to drop out a couple of semesters to work and earn money in order to continue his education,” Perry said. “Whitewater always welcomed him back.”
Perry’s life has been spent on the coasts of the U.S. He grew up in New Jersey while Harold was in the FBI and attended college and graduate school in New England. In the late 1960s, he moved to San Francisco to take advantage of a burgeoning technology industry.
“That’s where I had all of my job offers, because it was the start of Silicon Valley,” Perry said. “All of the consulting and accounting firms were hiring to provide services to all of these entrepreneurial companies.”
Perry has since lived in California, focusing on what he described as three separate 14-year careers that were focused on Silicon Valley.
“I started my career in public accounting, and became an audit partner focused on emerging, high-growth companies. I then transitioned into operations, serving in COO, vice chairman and CEO roles. My third career was as a general partner in a large venture capital firm, focused on early-stage technology companies.”
He has been retired for more than a decade, but he remains active through various community service ventures, including board positions with the public media station serving the San Francisco Bay area, the conservancy that supports national parks within the region, and a project — now in 37 states — to transform the delivery of contraceptive care for women.
“From a young age, my father instilled within me a number of life lessons, including the importance of education and giving back.”
For more information on UW-Whitewater’s December commencement, visit the commencement website.
Mark Perry, center, in front of Hyer Hall on Aug. 22, 2025, with his wife Mauree Jane Perry, right, and their daughter Elise Miller.
