Giles Perkins

Giles Perkins (born January 26, 1967 in Lufkin, Texas; died December 2, 2018 in Birmingham) was an attorney and former executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Perkins earned his bachelor's degree in English from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas and a law degree from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he served as student body president. He began been practicing law in Birmingham in 1992. He worked at Miller Hamilton Snider & Odom from 1999 to 2008, then opened his own firm, the Perkins Group. He later joined Adams & Reese as a partner.

Perkins was a founding member of Birmingham Zoo, Inc. when it was established as a private for-profit operator of the Birmingham Zoo. In 2005 Perkins served as president of the Friends of the Railroad District, leading their efforts to establish funding for the Railroad Reservation Park. His argument that a private board would be more successful in securing private donations than the city provoked then-mayor Bernard Kincaid to lash out at what he called a "plantation mentality".

Perkins was a campaign manager for Richard Arrington Jr in the 1995 Birmingham mayoral election. He led the state Democratic party from 1997 to 1999. In the 2010 Democratic primary he qualified to run for Alabama Attorney General, but lost in a runoff to James Anderson. Perkins chaired Doug Jones successful campaign in the 2017 special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat left open by Jeff Sessions' appointment to head the Department of Justice.

Perkins was married to Ram Tool CEO Hillery Head. The couple had three children: Barton, Hugh and Beverly. They attend St Mary's-on-the-Highlands Episcopal Church. Perkins was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015 and died in December 2018.

References

• White, David (May 19, 2010) "Campaign 2010: Democrats facing off for chance to be Alabama's attorney general." The Birmingham News
• Jordan, Phillip (December 15, 2005) "Railroad Reservations: Why FoRRd is slowing down the trains." Birmingham Weekly
• Archibald, John (August 25, 2017) "Confessions of a Railroad Park skeptic." The Birmingham News
• Coker, Angel (December 2, 2018) "Birmingham attorney, community leader Giles Perkins dies at 51." Birmingham Business Journal
• Archibald, John (December 6, 2018) "Giles Perkins has died; and Giles Perkins lives." The Birmingham News