Perry D. Avery printing sample album

Perry Dickinson Avery was born in 1904 in Deadwood, South Dakota, and grew up in Portland, Oregon. He attended Franklin High School, where he was editor of the annual publication the Franklin Post. He attended Reed College in Portland, where he was editor of the weekly publication the Quest, then Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon. He earned his bachelor's degree at Pomona College in Claremont, California. While in high school and college, he operated a printing press, named Waverly Press, to pay for his college tuition.

Avery taught for two years at the American International College at Izmir, Turkey. Later, he received bachelor of divinity, master of arts, and doctor of divinity degrees from the Chicago Theological Seminary in Illinois. After working as a minister in Indiana and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he became minister of the Federated Church of Corvallis in Oregon in 1955. By the late 1970s, he was living in Claremont, California, where he died in 1990.

Sources: "Reed Editor is Chosen," Oregonian, December 19, 1923, page 4; "Rev. Perry D. Avery to Begin Ministry at Federated Sunday," Corvallis Gazette-Times, January 7, 1955, page 4; "United of the Desert," The Desert Sun (Palm Springs, California), June 2, 1979, page A10; information provided by Judith Avery and Marilyn Avery Haley circa 2005; collection materials; vital records via Ancestry.com.