Mary Perry

Mary Perry competed for the United States at the 1963 Pan American Games, winning a gold medal, and then at the 1964 and 1968 Olympics. She was an AAU All-America in 1972-73. Perry graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1971 with a degree in physical education. She later taught and coached in Hawai’i and then Cal State Hayward, where she earned a masters’ degree in education.

She later moved to Oregon, coaching at Southern Oregon University, where she earned another masters’, this one in psychology. While in Oregon, Perry trained senior citizens in fitness through Elderhostel, and also worked with geriatric patients through Jackson County Mental Health until her retirement in 2002. Perry was inducted into the Cal State Northridge Hall of Fame in 1984.

She received the Flo Hyman Award from the US Volleyball Association as an All-Time Great Player, and in 2009, was inducted into the US Volleyball Hall of Fame. Perry had a difficult last few years, initially being diagnosed with a degenerative neurologic disease, but later dying from multiple system atrophy.