Nathaniel James Perkins (March 31, 1887 – April 20, 1962) was an American educator and politician who served as president of Fork Union Military Academy from 1918 to 1930 and as its headmaster from 1930 to 1948.

[1][2] Born at Carysbroook in Fluvanna County, Virginia in 1877, he could trace his ancestry back to the Revolutionary War.

He traveled to Ohio for further studies and received a bachelor's degree from Denison University in 1902.

[2] Perkins also served on Virginia's Board of Welfare and Institutions from 1950 until a year before his death, and his Fluvanna County home burned in 1958.

[1] Perkins was active in his Baptist Church, Masons, Shriners, Beta Theta Pi and the Sons of the American Revolution.