Kerr, Clark

Kerr, Clark kûr, kär [key], 1911–2003, American educational reformer, b. Reading, Pa., grad. Swarthmore College (B.A., 1932) and the Univ. of California at Berkeley (Ph.D., 1939). He was a professor of industrial relations at Berkeley from 1945 until 1952 when he was named chancellor. In 1958 he became president of the Univ. of California, building its prestigious system until 1967, when Gov. Ronald Reagan had him dismissed because of campus unrest. He became director of the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, which called for a “bill of educational rights,” and author of its report Three Thousand Futures (1970). His writings include The Uses of the University (1972) and The Future of Industrial Societies (1983).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Education: Biographies