Obituary for Arthur Perlo
November 2, 1947 – December 18, 2021

Art moved to Croton at age 10 and lived here until he left for college. He attended Croton-Harmon High School and was a party in the controversy over peace buttons. He engaged on the cross-country team and in the dramatics club. He was in at the beginning of the summer Shakespeare Festival under the direction of Frederick Blais, his most notable role being Calaban.

Art left college in Chicago after two years to devote full time to social and political work, based at the time on opposition to the war in Vietnam, to nuclear war and the threat thereof, and  on the civil rights movement. He joined the Communist Party USA wherein his father, Victor Perlo of Croton, was chief economist, at a time when the Party was much battered and in retreat under the concerted assault of McCarthyism.

Art moved west and settled in Oregon, working a year as a lumberman for Weyerhauser, and then in a steel mill. He had a sally there at Mount Hood in the Cascade range.  Art climbed snow fields to around 11000 feet, when the altitude obliged him to turn back. He soon returned east and joined Joelle Fishman in New Haven, Connecticut. They married and over five decades led the revival of the Communist Party of Connecticut, which today is a respected contributor in civil affairs and influential especially in the labor movement. After the death of his father, and despite having no formal training in the field, Art took over leadership of the economic work of the national Party, coordinating it and contributing a continual stream of articles and analyses.  All the while his state and local work as labor organizer and activist continued unabated. He had besides a regular job at Yale, programmer and systems manager for a science laboratory.

Art inherited a rare command of economic and political affairs at all levels that set them in balance and perspective. Calmly, without excitement, he knew how to think about issues for the long term. He worked well with people and was generally popular. His character was a moderate one, unpretentious, with no flaws, unless you count a lifelong  propensity for puns that looked up to sophomoric. His presence was superbly mature, yet he retained all his life a childlike curiosity and enthusiasm.

Art's outstanding passion outside his work and his wife was mountain climbing. He engaged awhile in some rock climbing with equipment; but he was happiest chugging up a high peak in the Adirondacks or the White Mountains on a trail, or bounding down it like a demented goat, with little in his pack save a spare vest and a bag lunch  He had scores of adventures there, and a fair few misadventures, like the time he and I ran into an August blizzard on the ridge trail in the Presidential range.

He is survived by his wife Joelle Fishman of New Haven, by his brother Stanley Perlo of Croton, and by his sister Katherine Perlo of Scotland.

As a humanist, a comrade, a husband, a brother, Art is irreplaceable.  He has left us, gone to finish climbing Mount Hood at last. In time we may all do so.  The range beyond stretches forever.

Events in the lifetime of Arthur Perlo were more often adverse than progressive, three were more defeats than victories. Art mustered through them all with steadiness, patience, and affection. There were some victories, there was some progress, and that is important. Humanity shall in time win to the next level, and win for keeps.