Music Department’s Eric Perkins Announces Retirement

In the fall of 1979, Eric Perkins joined Tower Hill from Middletown High School as the new band director. He has been a mainstay of the Music Department and was its Department Chair for nearly 35 years.

Eric was the instrumental/band teacher for Middle and Upper School alone for many of those years and even added the 4th Grade beginning instrumentalists in the spring. He was essential in the planning of the Pierre S. du Pont Theatre and helped to champion the place of the arts in the curriculum, along with faculty members Trina Tjersland and Gail Della Pella. Their efforts ensured that Tower Hill students would have a robust and educationally rich arts program. 

But it is perhaps Eric’s obvious affinity for jazz, so obvious in the performances of the Jazz Band over the years, that is a lasting impression for me. I should say that and the myriad of his former students who recognize after the fact how much they learned and how much they appreciated their music experience.

Eric has decided that this will be his last year at Tower Hill, and I hope you will join me in celebrating Eric's career at Tower Hill.

Harry Baetjer, Head of School