Perry A. Randall
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
In Swinney Park stands a bronze bust of Perry Randall, a man who helped build modern Fort Wayne in more ways than one. He arrived as a young attorney in eighteen sixty seven and practiced law here for more than forty years. Along the way he ran a home building company, owned wholesale lumber firms and the old Randall Hotel, and put up the five story Randall Building downtown that still stands on the National Register.
His sharpest instinct, though, was for the future. Randall was an early investor and officer in a small Fort Wayne electric company, staying on its board until it merged into General Electric. Near the end of his life he led the local anti tuberculosis league.
When he died in nineteen sixteen, grateful residents raised this bust in the park so the city would remember the lawyer who bet on electricity.
