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Ron Perry

Ron Perry grew up in Tucson, AZ. He dropped out of the University of Arizona to surf and dive in Hawaii and Australia. After he returned from serving with the US Army in Korea, he hitchhiked through India, Iran, Pakistan, Afganistan, Nepal, and a good portion of Southeast Asia before returning to Australia.

A friend got him interested in New Guinea and in 1965, he made his first trip to the Papua New Guinea side which was then under Australian administration. The country fascinated him. He worked there off and on for the next 14 years: surveying, managing a sawmill and trade store, running the first tour boat on the Sepik River, working for the Papua New Guinea National Cultural Council after Independence, and collecting artifacts as well as investing in various enterprises in Australia.

In 1979, he returned to Tucson to live while still making yearly trips to Australia and Papua New Guinea. He also traveled extensively through Mexico and Central and South America before fulfilling a lifelong ambition to explore Irian Jaya, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea. In the late 1980s, Ron, Carolyn and their friends, the Patania's, traveled the mountain highlands of Irian and canoed the swamps of the Asmat. They then explored more of Indonesia, including Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Bali and many of the other islands.

In 1996, he and Carolyn went to China. He continues to be actively involved in collecting and trading tribal art, primarily from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, making at least one trip a year into the island jungles.

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Last modified: Thursday, June 15, 2000
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