Press Club Dedicates Gala to a Firefighter's Firefighter

James Arthur Perry, 12/30/39 to 12/3/09

Editor, The Los Angeles Firefighter

Jim Perry was a staunch supporter of the Los Angeles Press Club for nearly 40 years and his publications won many LAPC awards over the decades.

But he was better known by his fellow firemen as a “firefighter’s firefighter.” He was a founding father of Local 112, United Firefighters of Los Angeles City at a time when union activity was discouraged by the Department.

Jim’s editorials for the Los Angeles Firefighter regularly “tackled hot-button issues without mincing words.” Sarah Kovitch’s obituary for the newspaper credited Perry with “rousing readers into political action.”

In 1953, President Kennedy awarded him the National Red Cross Life Saving Award for the LAFD’s first successful CPR.

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