Perry to speak on private service

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JENNIFER DYE

A student’s time at BYU is an investment period, said Lee Tom Perry, who will be speaking at the Devotional in the Marriott Center at 11 a.m. today.

His talk, titled “Private Service,” will encourage students to blend their own personal goals with the goals of society.

“The idea of education is to strengthen our talents and resources — an investment period for our lives. Then we are to go out and use them to improve the lives of others,” Perry said.

Perry is a professor of Strategy and Organizational Behavior for the Marriott School of Management. He is currently on leave but plans on returning to the classroom next fall.

“Many times, people see businesses as a monolithic, in-your-face type of organization,” Perry said. It is through the idea of what he terms “private service” that businesses give back to the people.

“The ultimate goal is to be a builder and make people better off than they were before,” Perry said.

Perry met his wife, Carolyn Bench Perry, at BYU, and she also holds a degree from BYU. Together they have six children, the oldest of whom is a senior at Orem High School.

Perry has taught at schools such as Yale University, Purdue University and Pennsylvania State University, but it is at BYU that he feels his “sense of mission is fulfilled.”

“I loved my time at other universities, but I always had the sense that BYU was where I wanted to be.”

Perry is in the process of writing his third book titled “Corporate Restructuring: Good, Better, Best.” It is expected to be released in the fall of 1997.

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