Elisha Perkins “Perk” Gould Jr., a lifelong Marbleheader, died on August 30, 2026. He was 98.
He was born on May 1, 1928 to Cornelia and Elisha Gould, attended Marblehead schools and graduated from Marblehead High School in 1946. He joined the Army that fall and spent much of 1947 in Korea, then went to the University of Maine at Orono on the GI Bill, graduating in 1953 with a civil engineering degree and a Sigma Chi pin. He spent most of his career with the Army Corps of Engineers in Waltham, working on bridge and dam safety.
He married Sally Carter in Swampscott in May 1953; after a few years in Maine they settled in Marblehead and raised two sons. He sailed out of the Corinthian Yacht Club, played a great deal of bridge, and in later years traveled with Sally and friends, including several trips to Europe.
He leaves his son, Elisha (Terry) Gould; his grandchildren, Elisha and his wife Caitlin of Santa Monica, Calif., Hilary of Boston, Claire of Philadelphia, and William and his wife Emily and George, both of Chicago; and his great-grandchildren, Quinn and Natalie of Santa Monica and William Carter of Chicago. His wife, Sally, his son William Carter Gould and his sister Janet Ingraham died before him.
Services and burial are private. Arrangements are by the Murphy Funeral Home, Salem. The family suggests gifts to the Gould Family Fund for Prostate Cancer Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, P.O. Box 849168, Boston, MA 02284.
Compiled from information published by Murphy Funeral Home. Photograph courtesy of the family via Murphy Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page on Legacy.com. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.
