Faith Ella (Schultz) Perkins

Faith (Ella) Schultz Perkins

1946-2026

Faith Perkins, 80, passed away in her Boston home on November 8, following a long battle with endometrial cancer. Her adoring husband was by her side.

Born to the late Ella (Skoog) Schultz and Wesley Schultz, Sr., Faith was raised in New Milford, CT. After growing up in a rural setting, she was excited to attend college in Boston, MA, and earned a degree in elementary education from Wheelock College. Faith met the love of her life, Dan, at Camp Millbrook in Maine, where they both worked as counselors. Before long, they were married on a beautiful “bluebird” day in January, right before Dan was deployed to Vietnam. Faith talked about how difficult it was waiting for Dan to return, and how she would tear up anytime “Leaving on a Jet Plane,” by Peter, Paul and Mary, played on the radio.

In their first years of marriage, while Dan commuted from Ridgefield, CT, to graduate school in NYC, Faith taught at the Elizabeth Morrow School in Englewood, NJ, and later in New Milford, CT. Dan’s career then brought the young couple, and their growing family, to Ann Arbor and Dearborn, MI, St. Louis, MO, Carlisle, PA, and Montréal, Canada. In retirement, they settled in Boston.

No matter where she lived, Faith was involved in her community, delighting the groups and organizations she joined with her tenacity and extraordinary organizational skills. Simply put, she got things done. She was a member of the League of Women Voters during her years in Michigan and then joined the Women’s Association of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, serving as chair of the Gypsy Caravan, the largest antique, craft, and flea market in the Midwest. Faith served on the boards of United Cerebral Palsy of Central Pennsylvania, the Volunteer Association Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal as English Secretary, and on the Board of the Fine Arts Society of Sarasota, FL. In Boston, Faith was a member of The Garden Club of the Back Bay. She served as a board member, and then president of the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay, receiving the Mary Natale Citizenship Award for her commitment to the community. Faith was a sustaining member of the Junior League of Boston and found great joy and friendship in the sustainers’ book club, self-named the “Ritzy Readers.” She was also a member of The Chestnut Group, Women Friends Over Fifty.

Faith leaves her devoted husband of 56 years, Daniel Perkins, children Sarah Perkins Arnold and her husband Alex, of Marblehead, and Randolph Wesley Perkins and his husband Viktor Sreckovic, of Boston. She was the loving Nana to her grandchildren Lily Arnold, Grace Arnold, and Molly Arnold.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Caring for a Cure, an organization founded by oncology nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital to improve the cancer journey for patients and their families