John Anthony Perks died peacefully at home surrounded by his family on January 31, 2025, at the age of 90. For those who appreciate auspicious coincidence, this was Imbolc, or St Brigid’s Day, in Ireland. John was a deeply spiritual person with a love of utopian experimental communities and of constant creative reinvention. He was a charismatic dreamer with a fiery temper and a wicked sense of humor. A romantic who loved ceremonies, especially weddings, he managed seven of his own.  He never met a costume or an adventure he didn’t like. He loved flags, boats, whiskey and animals, especially his last dog, a feisty pug named Viva. He was an excellent cook who almost always woke up cheerful, and even up into his eighties he could build anything. He thought of himself as a tribal person, tracing his lineage back to the Celts. 

John was born on March 13, 1934, in Sidcup, England. Though Sidcup is now a southern neighborhood of London, it was then countryside, and during World War II, John was encouraged by his Wiccan mother to play alone in the woods as a sort of haven from Nazi threat. There, John’s lifelong love of animals, trees and using his imagination to invent stories began. When Sidcup was eventually evacuated, John was sent first to Norfolk, and then to Cornwall, as part of an attempt to protect children from the nightly bombing raids but was later returned to Sidcup where he was knocked off his bike by a buzz bomb which punctured an eardrum. The terror and violence of those war years marked him for the rest of his life.

After the war, John went to work as a waiter at the age of fourteen. The following year, he decided he would either join the Merchant Marines or move to America, where his mother and two sisters had relocated. When his travel visa arrived before his Merchant Marines papers, his decision was made. He took a transatlantic voyage on the SS America from Southampton to New York, leaving March 10, 1950, and arriving three days later, on his 16th birthday. 

John’s adventures in the U.S. included stints as a cowboy, a butcher, a teacher, a painter, a sailor, and a butler to the rich and famous. One of his biggest projects was co-founding the Highland Community School on 600 acres in Paradox, NY, a therapeutic community for struggling adolescents. The school offered an alternative approach to education including working on a farm and many boating adventures on the “high seas” of Lake George. 

A second passion project began when he met his Buddhist teacher, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, in Vermont, and followed him to Boulder, CO where he helped establish Rinpoche’s home, Kalapa Court. This phase of John’s life ended when his teacher sent him away with the suggestion that he become a servant. John tells his own story of personal transformation best in his book, The Mahasiddha and His Idiot Servant. 

John came to believe that all beings are our teachers. Banishment was a devastating blow, but one that he would later consider to be among the most important teachings he’d received. Inspired by his formal teachers, including the 16th Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche—in addition to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche—John repaid his debt of learning by founding the lineage of Celtic Buddhism. He began in Saxtons River, VT, where he simply meditated by himself and was later joined by two friends: Bill Burns, a former teacher from the Highland Community School, and his wife, Peg Junge, who coincidentally had relocated near to John. Such were the auspicious coincidences that were common in John’s life. John later founded the AnáDaire Celtic Buddhist Center in Saxtons River with the help of his wife Julia. With Julia, John was finally able to settle down, and they were married for 16 years. They took good care of each other and of their pugs and loved traveling together. Their final trip to Arizona took place just a few months before he died. 

From 1998 on, John lived in the Saxtons River area, apart from a two-year hiatus in Ireland. In addition to being a teacher, giving talks at AnáDaire and hosting students at the Center, John was a friend, neighbor and well-loved community member. Letters and emails to him at the end of his life attest to the man and his evolutionary journey. He was described variously as a character, a rogue, a rascal, outrageous, warm, loving, engaging, wise, clairvoyant, nature-loving. 

One of John’s greatest sources of pride were his six children, Micah, Bekah, Kathleen, Sophie, Tillie, and Percy, many of whom inherited his creativity, sense of humor and his thick ankles. He had the blessing of getting to know his children more fully later in life and took every opportunity to talk about these “wonderful people,” describing their work and where they lived, adding quickly that their mothers deserved all the credit. 

If you are interested in knowing more about John’s life, Celtic Buddhism and the continuing work of some of his students, please visit: www.celticbuddhism.org. Tributes to John can also be found on: The Chronicles of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche: https://www.chronicleproject.com/the-passing-of-john-perks/

 John and I were good friends since 1965. I could write many chapters of the stories and adventures we shared. In processing his passing I composed a musical piece to express some of what I’m not not capable of expressing in words. It’s called: Dissolving into Air. My musical friend, John Schilling, plays lead guitar.

Bill Burns