Mary Perkins Mary Perkins Dame Mary Lesley Perkins, (born 14 February 1944) is co-founder of Specsavers, the British retail opticians chain. Together with her husband, co-founder and chairman Doug Perkins, Dame Mary has three children, all of whom work for Specsavers, and are eventually expected to take over the privately owned company. She attended Fairfield Grammar School in Bristol. She then went to Cardiff University to train as an optometrist. At Cardiff, she met Doug Perkins, whom she would later marry. The couple established their first business in Bristol in the 1960s. This was a chain of opticians around Bristol, which they
Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center chairman of the East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society Cancer Committee, for help reaching this goal. Together they formed the Cancer, Radiation and Research Foundation. In 1968 the Foundation held a capital campaign, which was capped by a major gift from philanthropist Paul D. Perkins whose daughter—Mary Bird—had recently died. The Foundation board expressed its gratitude by naming the Center after her. Mary Bird Perkins Radiation Treatment Center opened in Baton Rouge in 1971, Hammond in 1988 and Covington in 1998. In 1994, ground was broken for the six-floor expansion at the Essen Lane location. In 2004 MBP partnered with