Doug Perkins Doug Perkins Douglas John David Perkins (born April 1943) is a British billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder of Specsavers, an international optical retail chain. Douglas John David Perkins was born in April 1943 in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, Wales. "His father was a policeman and his grandparents were farmers in the county for generations." He was educated at the Llanelli Boys Grammar School, and he graduated from Cardiff University. Perkins began his career as an optometrist in Llanelli and Carmarthen. In the 1970s, he took over his father-in-law's optician store in Bristol and subsequently opened 22 stores. Perkins co-founded Specsavers with
Perkins Professorship of Astronomy and Mathematics Perkins Professorship of Astronomy and Mathematics The Perkins Professorship of Astronomy and Mathematics is an endowed professorship established at Harvard College in 1842 by James Perkins, Jr., (1761–1822). James Perkins, Jr., was a Boston philanthropist, benefactor of the Boston Athenæum, and co-founder with his younger brother Thomas Handasyd Perkins of the Perkins School for the Blind. In his will, Perkins left $20,000 to Harvard College to establish a chair in "whatever field the President and Fellows should find the most useful". The funds were transferred to Harvard on February 20, 1842, upon the death of Perkins' wife. At that time