Steve Perkins
Steve Perkins traced all four of his grandparents to Lithuania. His father's family came from a town in Latvia, and his paternal grandfather, born in 1870, briefly emigrated to Boston as a boy with his brother, changing the family name from Perchick to Perkins, before returning to Europe. In 1901 his grandfather and his wife Sarah moved to South Africa with their two oldest children, eventually having eight. Struck by hardship during the Spanish flu epidemic, his grandfather died in 1918, leaving his grandmother with seven children. His father, who spent years in an orphanage, was the only sibling to earn a degree and became a lawyer. His parents married in 1939.
Perkins grew up in South Africa, moving to Johannesburg around age 13 after his father's death. He chose medicine partly because he wanted a profession that was transportable, graduating from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1978. After an internship, compulsory army service, and a residency, he moved to the United States in 1983, encouraged by his friend Allen Peyser, a high school buddy already in Dallas. He arrived with a green card but no job, secured a residency at St. Paul Hospital, then completed a hematology and oncology fellowship at UT Southwestern. He spent five years on the faculty before entering private practice in January 1993.
Perkins met his wife, who came from an Orthodox background, on a blind date in New York, and they married quickly. They raised four children in Dallas, keeping kosher and giving their children Jewish education and bar and bat mitzvahs. Raised in a strongly Zionist home, with a father who admired Jabotinsky and a family that followed the Six-Day War closely, he remained pro-Israel throughout his life. He became a U.S. citizen in 1990. Deeply grateful for the opportunities and quality of life in Dallas, and proud of his children's achievements, he expressed lasting affection for both his adopted country and his city.
Full Transcript
okay my name's Steve Perkins and today is May 24 2016 very like tell us about your original family where do they come from and how did they immigrated to South Africa all four of my grandparents came from Lithuania my father's parents came from a town called samurai in Latvia and interestingly my father's father when he was nine he was born in 1870 in 1889 he and his brother came to the States and they changed the name from perchick to Perkins and they went to Boston Massachusetts and after two years my grandfather went back to the Turanian because he didn't like it his brother remained in
Boston and interestingly there isn't a Jewish Perkins in Dallas Allen Perkins who's probably related he's from Boston my grandfather then miss his wife Sarah Ozma and in 1901 they moved to South Africa with their two oldest children they had two children at the time they'll ended up having eight children the understand that six months when he was during Spanish food and in 1918 during the same epidemic my grandfather died as well so my grandmother was left with seven children the oldest had to go out work and when oldest was 11 years old and 12 years old and my father and his brother went to an
orphanage and then were they for about four years and my father was the only one who got a degree of the chocolate he was a lawyer he married my mother my mother's parents came to South Africa from Lithuania Russia which which town in 1911 and moved to China's work that's interesting to note that Johannesburg was only about 15 years old in 1901 it was founded in 1886 and by members parents had two daughters my mother my sister Isabel my mother met my father and married him in 1939 and I had a sister who was 13 years older than I am that she died in 1981
at age 39 which is unmerited in many children and she had cancer and my brother I would rather South Africa and he's six years older than I tell you the baby zombie and I went to med school largely because I knew at some point I wanted something transportable I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but it kept I was thinking big physics but I don't know how to make a living do physics choke Natesville and graduated from med school in 1978 did my internship and then Delaware Army which was compulsory there and then lift a specialized did two years of village of residency and
then moved to the States in 1983 what University were you at University of the farthest right with Warner's land as they say Texas and I came to Dallas because I'm a very good friend here Allen Peyser was a high school buddy of mine and he'd be nagging me to come I also done an elective in Dallas in 1977 it's been six weeks yeah so I was someone familiar a great impression because I've never caught and being a dance where the car isn't it's so easy but I didn't have a friend all said cousins in Connecticut to move to Connecticut so I had the option of
going there as well watch in New York but I came here and I had a green card and no job so usually the other way around right and I went around me to UT Southwestern and they offered me an internship and I said no thank you and then I was put in touch with Ellen mentor and he helped me get a residency for a year at st. Paul Hospital with Joe Burrus love and Randy Rosenblatt the fellowship at UT Southwest for three years in hematology and oncology and spent five years on the faculty until I got married and my wife thought that academic medicine was not going to cut it so I went to the private practice in 1993 January 1993 how did you meet yeah well I think exhausted the supply of signature ish women and deaths so have a good New York to find my wife actually I'm its mother friend came to the other student apologist and we met at the med school and she asked me if I was interested in
meeting someone in New York I said sure and that's how we met on a blind date in New York the day after the Rodney King riots we were engaged in six weeks and married four months how did you persuade her to come here I gave a lot of staying in New York or moving to Dallas and I think she thought that 1,800 miles was about as close to her parents that she wanted to be so she moved to Dallas and initially was a little tough for her and after we had a couple of kids she wasn't wanted to be back I interviewed over there and
went there several times other jobs but felt like a retrogressive so I decided I was going to do it and now we got very happy to us and she loves that about staying young I want to back up for just a moment can you remember or recall some of your most moving times growing up in South Africa some memorable moments when you were younger I have to say so memorable would be friends and with a great family or father's family my father was an alcoholic and a gambler I think he was traumatized by being in an orphanage he made a lot of money way before
he paid the taxes so when he died he died and when I was 13 I felt about my Wetzler he fell asleep with a cigarette the hospital I take that and he was its salt so we moved to Jonathan from Victoria we looked at I was 13 and because the family was there and we were close to the family I wasn't crazy about the school I was that it was a good school as far as public school twins I had great friends and I still have those friends and and those were good things I played soccer and enjoyed that and I eventually decided to leave
because most of my friends had missed I was gonna ask if you you obviously had some friends already here in Dallas specifically did you persuade or did anybody else come say hey maybe it's time to leave South Africa at seeing that you are doing that they mind your family or your friends there's no not dissuade I have cousins in Connecticut and most of my close friends have yet and I also put the future in South Africa was somewhat tenuous I didn't want to be there with black majority I thought was the right thing but I really didn't want to be there also I think I
was a bit bored to be honest I needed a bit of that bench and that's why and I hope the educational opportunities of the states would be better than there were in South Africa what in your high school years or even high school years persuaded you that science was the right way to go well I was good at math and science but I thought that the opportunities for learning and living would be better in medicine I actually thought about actuarial science but I interviewed with a few act reason so all these where Gaza penthouse all these insurance companies belonging these aromas and there was no
formal course in actuarial science that had to be done through my correspondence through the Institute of Actuaries in Edinburgh so I thought it was a little bit risky and you know I knew at some point I had to support my mother so I had to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible and at the side of med school would be the safest bit that's that's good as far as the Jewish community here specifically what did you do to get involved in that what have you joined or what do you feel comfortable with within the Jewish community well when I came I
was single most of the South Africans who came were American so I didn't hang out with them and I went to the Jewish singles party and used to go to JCC sometimes go to the home very often you think affect the first 10 years I was here I think I mean maybe two or three times I went to share a couple of times and found the red my brother and welcoming to be honest at that time so I didn't bother and but my friend through through a largely Church and that's that's how was being single when I got married and came from a very Orthodox
background she went to the Shiva and initially we were we ended up living in the a roof but the house in my area she wanted to look that kind of lifestyle but when we let kids we realized that what a play sport and we wanted to watch the place for two I really didn't want to look at it totally observing lifestyle so we moved and we did take our kids out they went to keep a preschool but all into products sickness was afterwards the boys at st. marks and Alana to Hockaday but two of our kids had vomits woozily all our kids had vomits wasn't blackness was and children were in Israel and we got together with a fan in Passover to pass our programs in Palm Springs and in Acapulco Florida and they saw their grandparents who observed so they've been exposed but not we have an impost today state and we largely keep kosher how important or not important was Israel and Zionism when you're growing up this was very important my father was a turbine science more of revisionist part than Margaret he was a gelatin ski admirer and we all remember listening
on the radio to Voice of America during the six-day war listen to the progress every day so and we belong to a Jewish country club in Pretoria Wingate country club after ordinate is pop the juice Trenton and you know I used to go every Saturday morning at all several years after Muhammad's base I went to Jewish day school until I was 13 and told me to tell so we exposed them with Zionists and I'm still signs pro-israel and it's important issue for me good day Eric cake so once you were here you said a lot of your friends who had already moved out of South
Africa did you find have you found and connected with him here in the United States you have they gone elsewhere well I've got very good friends in Dallas and positive Adrienne man who are very famous in South Africa normal elements more deaths was a classmate of mine Louie friendly and then I'll beg for it from South Africa and made the American Jewish Prince you know because I was single I found myself to South Africa it's like a lot of the married American friends as well have you joined any professional organizations since you've been here in the medical field well I'm a member of America's Sonic
temple ecology of American society mythology and that's pretty much it and the Maimonides Federation right that's an important group yeah what if anything do you miss about life in South Africa okay I'll be a very thin though - to know do you find though that have you brought any of your traditions with you at all or is it or you've left it behind that you would consider South African or Jewish traditions from there as opposed to what you've learned here well I'm sure the South African but they were lenient Eastern European for example a lot of people Harry and my wife's people we like chocolate
okay you know things like that so there are some food differences but then it's really been fight a bit have you had a chance to go back and visit not going twice she died about 10 years ago and I really have to be one since then and I have my brother Joe's big cousins and we're in touch with each other they came to know for the kids moment specific things have they been able to come here to visit at all well my brother's my cousin's have came here a while back it's been a long time since Livia Tellez in Connecticut okay right that's good talk
about citizenship I became a citizen in 1990 so as soon as the five years residence and did you have help from anybody or you just get it all on your own well I was legally yeah so I was eligible to apply students up in your pockets so I waited a year after I applied and contacted them to find out what the status of my application was they have no records so I told them where doesn't see why Danny victimized by a very competence and two months later I was asked to come in swear to myself as a servant to some part be nasty mail yeah
unfortunately give me a little feeling of what does it mean to you to have your US citizenship it means I can make the same mistakes that will you people make use like a photographer for words but no I mean that's that's a good feeling but I really feel that different at South Africans so they think now it's easier when you travel to have a South African citizenship I said I've been possible in American possible I remember the other way around we need to tell the Europe we'd be an arrest and he had South African passports but I love this country I think it's a great
country I think it's got a lot of problems and faults but it's still the best place to live where are your children now we have four kids my oldest leaves at ut-austin he's going to graduate probably December because he's taking an extra semester I think he's going to play video games and stay at home a state qualifies $900 a month and his destiny of where a son Michael is at Dartmouth and he's majoring in economics and he's a sophomore with a son Sam who's a sophomore Princeton and he's also majoring in economics and my daughter long as I seen it in high school she's graduating
this weekend she's in Hakone she's going to Princeton as well yeah so as my son michael says you bought four tickets with a lot for you one of them should come Mazel Tov on all of that that's wonderful the last thing I want to ask you and then you're welcome to anything you want is basically you've said it a bit but in your own words again are you glad you came here and why I'm very okay because other there were none in South Africa loving topic of conversation was whether we got a live one you've got very tiresome you know discussing whether we should stay
with us you should leave my life for that let him come to desperation when I was in a good situation I was in a residency program I was war for up and I wasn't unhappy so I was a little bit but when I met because you know this risk and uncertainty and you don't know what's going to happen but and people who stays still have a good life but it's not be very happy yeah I love this country I love Dallas everywhere we go doesn't matter where it is I lost my kid would you rather look here in Dallas and they unanimously draw the woman
does I mean I think the quality of luck is hard to beat in terms of the hassle factor educational opportunities for the kids you know ease of life and opportunities and we expect it's always under construction we don't have chuckles with the CRA and everybody else is happy and I'm happy in my career I had great opportunities at UT Southwestern did the fellowship trained on the gene frenkle who's a great car love gene frenkle and I well I thank you very much for this interview it's been wonderful appreciate it you