Last week the Vermont State Colleges inducted its second alumni Hall of Fame class and raised thousands of dollars for student scholarships at its annual VSC Hall of Fame ceremony. Darren Perron was honored as the second Castleton alumnus inducted into the VSC Hall of Fame.
Darren Perron, who grew up in Barton, graduated from Castleton in 1995 with a bachelor of science degree in mass media communications and now anchors the WCAX-Channel 3 evening news. Perron went to WCAX in 1995, where he worked as a weekend anchor for nearly a decade before replacing longtime anchor Marselis Parsons. Throughout his career Perron has received several awards including an Emmy, the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Broadcaster of the Year award, nine Edward R. Murrow awards, and 12 Associated Press awards. He was the only non-network reporter to be nominated for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation award for “Becoming,” which was his series about the transgender community in Vermont. Perron has also been recognized as one of the top investigative reporters of New England by the National Television Academy and has won readers’ choice awards from Seven Days, the Times Argus, and the Rutland Herald.
In 2013 he returned to his alma mater as the commencement speaker, where he urged the thousands in attendance to learn from their mistakes. “If you don’t do something stupid when you’re young,” quipped Perron, “you won’t remember something funny when you’re old.”
