Thomas Nelson Perkins

Thomas Nelson Perkins (May 6, 1870 – October 7, 1937) was an American lawyer from Massachusetts. He was assistant to the Secretary of War in 1917 and was chief counsel and a member of the priorities commission of the War Industries Board. Following the war, he was a member of the Paris Peace Conference and the Allied Reparations Committee.

Early life Thomas Nelson Perkins was born on May 6, 1870, in Milton, Massachusetts, to Jane Sedgwick (née Watson) and Edward Cranch Perkins. His brother was James H. Perkins. Perkins was educated in Hopkinson's School in Boston. He graduated from Harvard College in 1891 with a Bachelor of Arts. He was captain of the 1891 varsity rowing team at Harvard, which included his friend Nicholas Longworth. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1894 with a Bachelor of Laws. He then spent a year studying abroad.

Career In 1896, Perkins became a member of the Ropes, Gray, & Loring law firm in Boston. He with fellow junior lawyer Roland W. Boyden helped expand the firm from an initial six lawyers to almost 60. The firm was later renamed Ropes, Gray, Boyden & Perkins, in 1914. Around 1899, Stone & Webster sent Perkins to Seattle to solve problems with traction lines of the city. On February 1, 1918, he was appointed assistant to E. R. Stettinius, surveyor general of supplies in the War Department. Following Stettinius's appointment as second assistant secretary of war, Perkins remained as assistant. In July 1918, he was appointed assistant to the Secretary of War and was in charge of the procurement and production of supplies. In September 1918, he was appointed assistant director of munitions and continued in that role until his resignation on November 26, 1918. He was in Russia during the Russian Revolution. He helped reorganize the Boston and Maine Railroad. He served as director from 1924 to 1937, chairman of the executive committee starting in 1928, and chairman of the board from 1930 to 1933. He helped raise towards the railroad and helped build the North Station. In 1929, he served as acting president of the railroad before being succeeded by Edward S. French. He was director of Boston & Main and the Southern Pacific. He was chairman of the board of the Commercial Radio International Committee and a member of the executive committee of the Old Colony Trust Company and the First National Bank of Boston. He was director of the Boston Madison Square Garden Corporation, Champion Copper Company, Flintkote Company, George H. Morrill Company, Merrimac Chemical Company, Postum Company, St. Mary's Canal Land Company, and Sullivan Machinery. He was president and director of Chickering Investment Company, director and chairman of the executive committee of the Puget Sound Power and Light Company, and vice president and director of the Railway and Light Securities Company. He was director and member of the executive committee of the Lee, Higginson Trust Company. He was member of the Somerset Club.

Perkins had a coronary thrombosis in November 1936. He died on October 7, 1937, at his home on Clapboard Tree Street in Westwood. He was buried in Milton.

Awards In 1926, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard Law School. In 1930, Perkins received a Doctor of Laws from Dartmouth College.