Baron Perlman is a long-time collector of American decorative arts. Bitten by the collecting bug as a young man he found that his childhood and teen focus on stamps, coins, comic books, and baseball cards was supplanted by American antiques. He was born to collect. Dr. Perlman was an academic for 34 years teaching and researching as a clinical psychologist. His applied work as a clinician doing psychotherapy, supervising others, and just plain listening and trying to make sense of serves him well as a collector. Collecting is as human an endeavor as anything Shakespeare ever described. Born in Chicago Perlman attended Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) and then Michigan State University where he earned his master's and doctorate in clinical psychology. During a sabbatical from graduate school he spent two years in the U.S. Army including a sojourn in Viet Nam. Most of his professional life was spent in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and in a variety of consulting positions. He is now joyfully retired. His interests in collecting and writing have led to numerous columns that continue to be published in Maine Antique Digest. Additionally, he pens a monthly column for the local newspaper, the Oshkosh Northwestern about local, state and national matters - involving the interactions of three people in a bar (about as Wisconsin as one can get). Married almost 50 years, his wife Sandy joins him in collecting. They have lived in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for a long time and have two sons and three cats. Neither son is as consumed with collecting as their dad is. (Of course, the aircraft fixation of one son is costly to say the least.)
