Arthur Joel Perella
Art was born on August 25, 1941 and was the only child of Arthur and Dora Perella. He was raised in Nutley, New Jersey where he learned about the importance of hard work and the value of an education. Art always had an engineering mind and used to take things apart as a child, even if he couldn't put them back together afterwards.
Art received a Bachelor's of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked for General Motors for over 35 years in many capacities, including GM Research, Buick, GM Powertrain, and the Wilmington, Deleware Assembly plant.
Art is survived by his wife, Roxann, whom he met at GM, where she was a secretary. Roxann says she married him for his blue eye and his money. But, clearly there was more to their relationship than that since they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in June 2017. Together they traveled to 102 countries, founded a quilting group at their church that made over 5,000 quilts for Lutheran World Relief, were the parents of one daughter – Diane Fischer and one son – Donald Perella, and were the grandparents of four grandchildren – Aaron and Maria Fischer, and Caleb and Abigail Perella.
Art will be missed by his family and friends who will remember him for his sense of humor, his intelligence, his love of trivia, his love of travel, his love for his family, and his many philosophies and observations about how the world works (or should work – in his opinion).
To end this memorial, here are few selected insights on the world from Arthur J. Perella:
If you do a good job for someone, you develop steady customers.
All changes make winners and losers. The winners are the ones that propose the change. The losers find out after the fact.
The most important element in any relationship whether it's friendly, athletic, professional, business, or romantic, is trust.
Nothing is as good as it seems, and nothing is as bad as it seems. The human failing is to exaggerate.