 Perry received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Zoology from University of California, Santa Barbara.After graduation, he studied at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole; he obtained his Ph.D from the University of California at San Diego in Marine Biology under David Epel in 1979.He then received a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Cell Biology in the laboratories of William R. Brinkley, Joseph Bryan and Anthony R. Means at Baylor College of Medicine where he laid the foundation for his observations of cytoskeletal abnormalities.