Delmont John Perry (Osip Mandelstam Bukharin)

PORTLAND – Del, a/k/a Osip Mandelstam Bukharin, passed away on Oct. 19, 2023, at the end of one of the longest battles with Parkinson’s disease ever recorded. He was born on July 29, 1941, to Delmont H. and Mary Hannon Perry, then of Waterford, later of Scarborough, the eldest of six children.

He attended Scarborough schools, playing the part of father in “Father Knows Best” and being managing editor of the yearbook, among other activities. He attended Boston University, continuing with theater and graduating with a B.A. in English Literature, and did post-graduate work at what was then called U. of M. at Portland-Gorham.

Summers during college he worked in the machine shop at the S. D. Warren paper mill in Westbrook, becoming a highly skilled machinist. He taught English and Latin and was Theatre Director at Coe Brown Northwood Academy in New Hampshire before serving in the Air Force. Following his discharge, he spent a year traveling the country and doing odd jobs. He then worked at Bliss Machine Shop in South Portland, where he became shop steward for the union. He taught English at Greely High School in Cumberland for many years. He then discovered his true calling as a Uniserv Director for the Maine Teachers Association.

He loved a good storm, and many mornings while he was living out of state his younger brothers would wake up to find his ’51 Chevy stuck in the snowbank at the end of the driveway at the farm in Scarborough.

Del had a zeal for life that veered in every direction— classical music, M.G. sports cars, hunting, boating on Casco Bay out of the Centerboard Yacht Club, cutting and burning wood, Democratic politics, farming and raising Herefords, playing the saxophone and flute, jazz music, big motorcycles, poetry, scuba diving, dressage and horse transport, photography, welding and metal sculpture, oil painting. In the early ’90s he converted to Judaism and changed his name to Osip Mandelstam Bukharin, which is the name he used as a DJ at the U.S.M. Radio station, and the one most reading this will recognize. He championed the cause of Leonard Peltier.

Despite five marriages he had no children, but was blessed late in life with a stepdaughter, Heidi Donovan of Coplin Plantation. He was predeceased by his parents and younger brother Steve. He is survived by brothers, John S. Perry of Cornish, Mark A. Perry of Eddington, and Matthew T. Perry of Jackson, N.H., a sister, Mary Ellen Perry of Exeter, N.H.; a host of nieces and nephews; and two special step-grandchildren.

At his request, his remains are being donated to the University of New England School of Medicine. Friends and family are invited to a gathering in his honor on Sunday, Nov. 5, at 1:30 p.m. in the West Living Room of 75 State Street, Portland.

The family wishes to express their sincere appreciation to the staff at 75 State Street for the care given Del in his last years, which was made very difficult by the pandemic.