Al Kerr
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Al Kerr Dr. Albert L. Kerr
He served with distinction in the Navy during World War II as a commander of Landing Ship Tanks. He saw action in several campaigns in the Mediterranean and Pacific, notably Okinawa, where he was in charge of a flotilla of ammunition ships. After leaving the Navy in 1946, he returned to the world of private secondary education as a teacher at Gilman School in Baltimore, Md., and then at Governor Dummer Academy in South Byfield, Mass. In 1957 he became headmaster of Berwick Academy in South Berwick, Maine, as that school transitioned from serving as the town's high school to resume its earlier status as an independent school. These years of challenge and achievement were followed by service as headmaster of the Peddie School in Hightstown, N.J. (1964 to 1977). He received various awards, including a honorary doctorate from Bucknell University, for his work at Peddie. That school later received a donation of $100 million dollars from a grateful alumnus. From 1977 until his retirement in 1987 at age 71, Dr. Kerr served as a consultant and interim headmaster at seven private schools in different parts of the country. He also served on the boards of numerous charitable and educational organizations. From his early years at Berwick academy, until his retirement to York, Maine, the Kerr family maintained a second home on Cutts Island in Kittery Point. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Rae Kerr; a daughter, Jean Kerr and her husband, Neal Fisher of Kittery Point; a son, Stuart Kerr and his wife, Eleanor of Washington, DC; and one granddaughter, Marian Kerr. |
Albert L. Kerr was born on Sept. 9, 1916 in Lawrence, Mass., the son of Albert L. Kerr, sr. and Jennie Burford Kerr. Dr. Kerr was educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., received his bachelor's degree from Yale and his master's from Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, where he met Rae Morgan, who would become his wife.