Bertram Perkel, a New Yorker who made his home on the Outer Cape for the last 22 years and had a profound influence in local government and as a champion of the arts, died at Cape Cod Hospital on March 22, 2024 from complications of a fall at his Provincetown apartment two weeks earlier. He was 94.
Universally known as Buddy, he had an illustrious legal career in New York City and was widely known for his political activism and community service. His favorite job as a lawyer, said his daughter Rachel, was serving as special counsel to police commissioners Patrick Murphy and Don Cawley from 1972 to 1974, a period when pervasive corruption in the department was being rooted out following the revelations of Officer Frank Serpico.
He and his wife, Marla, who died at 86 in January 2023 after 61 years of marriage, moved from New York to their summer home in Wellfleet in 2002, then later to Truro, and finally to Seashore Point in Provincetown. In each town, they were known for their rich and exuberant social life, political action, and civic engagement.
Buddy was born in New York City on Dec. 21, 1929. His parents, Jewish immigrants from Ukraine and Poland, lived first on the Lower East Side and moved to the Bronx to raise their family. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and then New York University, and he received his J.D. degree from NYU Law School, where he had been admitted with a full scholarship through the Root-Tilden-Kern Program.
He and Marla, a dancer, mounted police officer, and community organizer, married in 1961 and honeymooned in Provincetown. They summered in Wellfleet starting in 1970.
Buddy started his career in private practice focused on labor law, working at the firms Hartman & Craven, Shea Gould, and Baker & Botts. He was counsel for more than 20 years to important New York labor unions including District Council 37, the largest municipal union in New York with more than 150,000 members. He was a key adviser to prominent leaders like Victor Gotbaum and Stanley Hill.
In the 1960s, Buddy served on the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee under the auspices of the American Civil Liberties Union and on the Council of Federated Organizations, which played a key role in the civil rights actions known as Freedom Summer in Mississippi. He was based in Clarksdale, Miss. and was responsible for legal work in the place where the bodies of murdered civil rights workers were found.
In a letter to his daughters written in 2007, Buddy recalled his Mississippi work and his calling Marla every night to assure her that he was safe. One night, the phone system was broken down and he couldn’t call. “Mom says that she was up all night on the phone to Mississippi,” he wrote, “and when she finally heard from me in the morning, her hair had turned gray.”
His friend John Dundas of Truro, who was with Buddy in his last days, called him “a civil rights warrior, and a friend to all.”
In later years, Buddy served on the national board of the ACLU and on the board of the legal services unit of Mobilization for Youth. He advised New York Gov. Hugh Carey on law enforcement issues. And he volunteered with Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
On the Outer Cape, Buddy served for more than 10 years on the Truro Zoning Board of Appeals and was its chair for much of that time. He was a trusted adviser to Town Manager Rae Ann Palmer and other municipal officials.
Even those who he clashed with in his role as an arbiter of zoning laws spoke of him with admiration. “He was a great zoning board chair in that he provided clear and unambiguous feedback about our projects,” said lawyer Ben Zehnder, “and he guided the board with intelligence, confidence, and a wonderful sense of humor. I miss him.”
“He was someone you could discuss town issues with anytime,” said Chris Lucy, a member of the Truro ZBA, “and he was always willing to give insight, not direction, on matters before the board. He often would point out facts that everyone had overlooked.”
A devoted patron of the arts, Buddy served on the boards of the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, and the Provincetown Theater.
He loved to travel and explore other cultures, especially in Africa, sleeping outdoors in the Sahara on a month-long trip in 2008 at age 78. At 84, he went to Mongolia to experience the Eagle Festival there, and he also visited India and the South Pole.
Buddy’s last trip was to Yellowstone National Park with Rachel in February, just seven weeks before he died. “He wanted to go dog-sledding, and we did!” said Rachel. “He was utterly thrilled and overjoyed with the experience.”
“My father loved classical music, the opera, and the arts,” she added. “He loved living in a creative community and was always curious about the world around him. His intellectual engagement and curiosity and his love of community and commitment to the civic good were remarkable.”
Buddy is survived by his daughters, Rachel Perkel and husband Shawn Becker of Burlingame, Calif. and Diana Perkel of Amesbury; grandchildren Abigail and Aaron Becker; and niece Maria Brand and husband Jacques of Scarsdale, N.Y.
