Senior Spotlight | Carolina Bay’s Bob Perry is Forever Young
February 18, 2024
BY BETH A. KLAHRE, PHOTOS BY JACKIE WHITAKER PHOTOGRAPHY AND COURTESY OF BOB PERRY
It wasn’t until Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall resident Bob Perry was
retired – twice – that he first stepped onto a softball field. Born in Detroit,
Michigan, his family relocated to San Jose, California where Bob grew
up, attended high school and studied for three and one half years as a
college math major before his draft number came up. “I didn’t want to be
haphazardly assigned and really wanted to do something more significant.
So I enlisted, hoping to attend the Army Language School in Monterrey,
California,” he recalls. Bob was accepted, and after completing training in
a specific Slavic language was assigned to the National Security Agency.
After fulfilling his three year obligation, Bob served in the Ready Reserve while attending the University of California, Berkeley obtaining a degree in Slavic languages and literature. When an opportunity surfaced at IBM, he took the computer-related job, a position he held for 30 years before retiring.
Retirement only lasted a short time before Bob teamed up with two of his IBM cohorts to form their own software company. Bob’s wife Judy also joined the company. “It was an interesting ride. We were on the bleeding edge of technology, developing communication software for email for small hand held devices. Our development lab was in India. We had 100 software engineers working for us. We developed software for Apple’s Newton, the precursor to the iPhone. It took a lot of resources and didn’t generate much revenue,” says Bob. “We were going to get filthy rich. We didn’t even get dirty.”
Judy convinced him to retire – again. Living in Connecticut near New York City, they relocated to Wilmington. And here Bob unleashed another talent. Swing, batter, swing! Bob Perry takes his turn at bat in 2011 during Wilmington Continued on page 48… Senior Softball Association (WSSA) league play at Ogden Park in Wilmington.
The couple was renting while waiting for their new build to finish
construction when they had a visitor who was starting a senior softball
league. “He told me that I looked like someone who could play softball,
and before I could say no, my wife said, ‘he would love to do that.’ And all
of sudden I was playing softball,” says Bob.
In the beginning, there were just enough players to make one team. After a couple of years, enough players had been recruited to organize teams by age groups within the league that is now the Wilmington Senior Softball Association (WSSA.)
Bob played on WSSA teams from age 62 to 86. Over those years, he won 11 gold, two silver and three bronze medals at the North Carolina Senior Games and competitions at the national level in Orlando, Baton Rouge, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Virginia Beach to name a few. He is most proud of the bronze medal that his team, which he also managed, received when he was 80 years old at nationals in Cleveland.
When WSSA created its Hall of Fame in 2013, Bob was inducted the first year. The award is based on skill in league and tournament play, sportsmanship and personal behavior, as well as one’s contribution of time and effort to grow WSSA. Bob was influential in obtaining Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall as a sponsor of a team in the Legacy Division, the division for eager players despite slowed reflexes, declining skills or physical disabilities. Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall continues to be a very loyal sponsor.
“The league is great camaraderie,” Bob says. “There have been a lot of really nice gentlemen who I played ball with over these years,” he says. Bob played until 2020 when his wife passed. He thought he would go back that spring and even started training, but COVID-19 cancelled play for one year and his age suggested otherwise. “We play hard and try to do all the things we did when we were younger. It’s a competitive league” says Bob who retired from playing at age 86 after a 24-year-stint in left field with some time at second base.
Bob and Judy moved from their Landfall home to Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall on the first day it opened, November 2, 2015. “I love being here. Judy loved it here. Most significant for us is the incredible staff who run Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall and the many absolutely fascinating, wonderful people who live here,” he says.
Now Bob stays busy keeping tabs on his seven children and seven grandchildren who are located as far away as Vermont and Utah, Georgia and Washington, DC, and as close as Wilmington. Bob is involved in St. Mark’s Catholic Church and delivers communion weekly to residents at Carolina Bay at Autumn Hall and Bradley Creek Health Center. He leads a Bible study and is hoping to start a chess club.
This past fall Bob participated in the week-long Carolina Bay at Autumn
Hall Olympics. Well over 100 residents participated in activities including
shuffle board, bocci ball, ping pong, swimming, biking and Bob’s expertise,
chess. This coming March the winners will compete with winners from 10
other Liberty Senior Living communities. Last year, Bob was the overall
Liberty Senior Living chess champion.
WSSA’s website advises, ”You don’t stop playing because you grow old. You
grow old because you stop playing.” No doubt Bob will be forever young.