Gary Lynn Perkins, 75, passed away suddenly April, 28, 2014, in Cathedral City, California. He was born August 20, 1938, in Montpelier, Idaho, the oldest son of Lynn Pearce Perkins and June Gubler Perkins. He graduated from Montpelier High School in 1956. 

Following high school, he attended BYU, University of Idaho and Stevens Heneger College in Salt Lake. He worked for Amarada and for the Salt Lake City Police Department. He joined the U.S. Army in September 1961 and served for two years in communications with an honorable discharge. Following his years in the service, he went to work for Hughes Aircraft in California working in their communications department. He took his real estate license test and worked as a realtor in California. He moved to Florida for a few years and worked as a court stenographer. He then relocated back to the Los Angeles area and got his real estate broker’s license. He worked in real estate until his retirement.

A few years after retirement, Gary decided to learn the Spanish language and took classes at UCLA. He then moved to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for three years.

When he returned from Mexico, he sold his home in California and bought a motorhome to live in so that he could spend his winters in the Palm Springs area near friends and his summers in Idaho close to family and friends. Friends and family were very important to Gary.

He was constantly finding classmates and friends. In the last year, he had spoken to all but one of his classmates and all of his Perkins first cousins. This he did without the use of a computer or the internet. He was so looking forward to the Montpelier High School reunion in conjunction with Montpelier’s Sesquicentennial celebration and had planned a Perkins reunion at the same time. Gary’s nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews looked forward every summer to the Lynn and June Perkins family campout. He will be greatly missed.

Gary was a people person who thrived on visiting his friends and acquaintances and made a special effort to see them and call frequently. He had a great sense of humor and was the life of the party. He had a gift for remembering names, birth and death dates, and was our family’s source for all this information. He would call his siblings and ask if they could remember who was born on that day and how old they were or would have been, or if we knew who died on that day. He was our family research library.

He was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his siblings, Kent L. (Ozzie) Perkins and Marilynn of Alpine, Wyoming; Paul R. (Ish) Perkins and Edith of Fish Haven, Idaho; and Junalyn (Abby) Grunig and Don of Preston, Idaho. He has 11 nieces and nephews and 28 great-nieces and great-nephews.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, May 10, 2014, at 11:00 a.m. at Schwab-Matthews Mortuary, 702 Clay St., in Montpelier, Idaho. There will be a visitation that morning from 9:30-10:45 prior to services.