William R. Perkins

Mr. Perkins served as personal counsel for James B. Duke and his brother Benjamin N. Duke, representing the Duke family and Duke philanthropic and industrial interests throughout his life. He drew the wills for the Duke brothers, as well as their voluntary trusts, including The Duke Endowment, and served as executor of their estates. He was Vice President and Director of Duke Power Company and Director of Duke University. Mr. Perkins served as Vice Chairman of The Duke Endowment from its inception in 1924 until his death in 1945. He supervised tax litigation in New Jersey involving Doris Duke, Mr. Duke’s daughter, and was active in the anti-trust litigation for the American Tobacco Company in New York in 1911. He was an honorary pallbearer at James B. Duke’s funeral in 1925. He would later recall his relationship with Mr. Duke as “an education, a delight, an inspiration … He was frankness and simplicity itself.”