Perkins, Northwestern Trustee and Retired Jewel CEO, Dies at 88

Donald S. Perkins, retired CEO and chairman of the board of Jewel Companies and a member of Northwestern University’s board of trustees, died at his home in Northfield on March 25 at age 88.

Perkins joined the Northwestern University Board of Trustees in 1970 and was elected a Life Trustee in 2003. He served as vice chairman of the board and on the nomination of trustees and officers, development, executive, budget, compensation, and educational policies committees.

Henry S. Bienen, president emeritus of Northwestern, said Perkins was “a great friend, a wonderful man and an exceptional Northwestern trustee.”

“He was a man persuaded by facts and he asked tough and penetrating questions,” Bienen said. “Don was an excellent chair of the campaign undertaken in my presidency. He worked hard on the campaign as he worked hard on whatever he undertook. Don was straightforward, honest and fair-minded.