Perry F. Kendig completed 23 years of service at Roanoke College. The first eleven were spent as dean and professor of English; the last twelve as the seventh president of the College.
He devoted his entire career to education, except for a four-year tour in the U.S. Navy during World War II as lieutenant commander.
He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in his home town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and earned his M.A. and Ph. D. degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in graduate school and later helped organize the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Roanoke Valley.
He was past president of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, the Association of Virginia Colleges, and the numerous academic and professional societies and organizations.
Dr. Kendig was an active churchman, as member and past councilman of College Lutheran Church. He served on the executive board of the Virginia Synod and was a former trustee of Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary.
He was an involved citizen of the community. He was a director and past president of the Roanoke Symphony Society; past president of the Roanoke Valley Torch Club, director of the English Speaking Union of the Roanoke Valley; and past director of Roanoke Fine Arts Center. He pursued his hobby of bird watching as member of the Virginia Society of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society.
Primarily, however, Perry Kendig devoted his full energies toward building and developing Roanoke College. The results of his presidency produced a strong faculty, a reformed curriculum, new facilities, more endowment, and an enhanced reputation throughout the world of higher education. The College faced the challenge of the 70's with greater strength and confidence because of the achievements of the Kendig decades.
Perry Kendig received the Roanoke College Medal in 1975.