Clark Kerr

Clark Kerr
First Chancellor University of California, Berkeley Twelfth President University of California
Term	1958 – 1967
Born	May 17, 1911(1911-05-17) Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	December 1, 2003(2003-12-01) (aged 92) El Cerrito, California, USA
Alma mater	Swarthmore College Stanford University U.C. Berkeley
Institutions	University of Washington University of California, Berkeley University of California
Profession	Economist, educator, administrator
Spouse	Catherine Kerr

Clark Kerr (May 17, 1911 – December 1, 2003) was an American professor of economics and academic administrator. He was the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley and twelfth president of the University of California.

Biography

Early years

Kerr was born in Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, and earned his A.B. from Swarthmore College in 1932, an M.A. from Stanford University in 1933, and a Ph.D. in economics from UC Berkeley in 1939. In 1945, he became an associate professor of industrial relations and was the founding director of the Institute of Industrial Relations.

Career

U.C. Berkeley

During the McCarthy era in 1949, the Regents of the University of California adopted an anti-communist loyalty oath to be signed by all University of California employees. Kerr signed the oath, but fought against the firing of those who refused to sign. Kerr gained respect from his stance and was named UC Berkeley's first chancellor when that position was created in 1952. As chancellor, Kerr oversaw the construction of 12 high-rise dormitories. In September, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him to the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.

University of California regents

In 1958, Kerr was the Regents' choice to lead the entire university system. His term as UC president saw the opening of campuses in San Diego, Irvine, and Santa Cruz to accommodate the influx of baby boomers. Faced with a dramatic increase of students entering college, Kerr helped establish the now much-copied California system of having the handful of University of California campuses act as 'top tier' research institutions, the more numerous California State University campuses handle the bulk of undergraduate students and the very numerous California Community College campuses provide vocational and transfer-oriented college programs to the remainder.

In 1959, Kerr along with Chancellor Glenn T. Seaborg helped found the Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory.

Student protests

Clark Kerr on the cover of TIME, October 17, 1960

Controversy exploded in 1964 when Berkeley students led the Free Speech Movement in protest of regulations limiting political activities on campus, including Civil Rights advocacy and protests against the Vietnam war. It culminated in hundreds of arrested students at a sit-in. Kerr’s initial decision was to not expel University of California students that participated in sit-ins off campus. That decision evolved into reluctance to expel students who later would protest on campus in a series of escalating events on the Berkeley campus in late 1964. Kerr was criticized both by students for not agreeing to their demands and by conservative UC Regent Edwin Pauley and others for responding too leniently to the student unrest.^[1]

Blacklisting

In 2002, the FBI released documents that had Kerr blacklisted^{[clarification needed]} as part of a campaign to suppress people at UC deemed subversive.^[2] This information had been classified by the FBI and was only released after a fifteen-year legal battle that went all the way to the US Supreme Court. President Lyndon Johnson had picked Kerr to become secretary of Health, Education and Welfare but withdrew the nomination after the FBI background check on Kerr included damaging information the agency knew to be false.

Edwin Pauley approached the CIA Director John McCone (a Berkeley alum and associate) for assistance. McCone in turn met with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.^[3][4] Hoover agreed to supply Pauley with confidential FBI information on "ultra-liberal" regents, faculty members, and students, and to assist in removing Kerr. Pauley received dozens of briefings from the FBI to this end. The FBI assisted Pauley and Ronald Reagan in painting Kerr as a dangerous "liberal."

Kerr's perceived leniency was key in Reagan's election as Governor of California in 1966^{[citation needed]} and in Kerr's dismissal as president by the university’s Board of Regents in 1967. In response, Kerr stated that he left the university just as he entered it: "fired with enthusiasm."

Kerr’s second memoir, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967 Volume Two: Political Turmoil details what he refers to as his greatest blunders in dealing with the Free Speech Movement that ultimately led to his firing.

• 

  CIA's McCone, at Pauley's request, asks Hoover to target anti-war protests at UC Berkeley.

• 

  1969 FBI memo re: Ronald Reagan's purge of UC Berkeley, p.1.

• 

  1969 FBI memo re: Ronald Reagan's purge of UC Berkeley, p.2.

• 

  1969 FBI memo re: Ronald Reagan's purge of UC Berkeley, p.3.

Following his dismissal, Kerr served on the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education until 1973 and was chairman of the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education from 1974 to 1979.

Kerr also served as Chairman, 1984 USPS National Agreement arbitration chairman—and then joined the USPS panel of national contract arbitrators.

Personal life

Kerr was married to Catherine Spaulding on Christmas Day, 1934. They had three children; Clark E., Jr., Alexander, and Caroline Gage. He died in his sleep in El Cerrito, California, following complications from a fall.

Legacy and honors

There are Kerr Halls on the campuses of U.C. Davis, U.C. Santa Barbara, U.C. Santa Cruz, and U.C. Berkeley.^[5][6]

The Berkeley facility is located a few blocks from the main campus, and includes residences and sports practice facilities. The Spanish-style residential complex houses 700 students and features landscaped gardens and a conference center. It was previously the site of the California School for the Deaf and Blind, and was acquired by The University after a court battle. (The University was not a party to the case. It was offered the site after the Schools for the Deaf and Blind relinquished it to the State as surplus property.)

The Clark Kerr Medal is named in his honor.

Another legacy was his wit—after writing a serious book "The Uses of the University", Kerr surprised an audience with this riposte--"The three purposes of the University?--To provide sex for the students, sports for the alumni, and parking for the faculty."^[7]

And after being fired by California's Governor (future President) Ronald Reagan, Kerr responded that he left office as he had begun--"Fired with enthusiasm".^{[citation needed]}

Bibliography

• Kerr, Clark, The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967
• Kerr, Clark, The Uses of the University, 5th edition. 1963; Harvard University Press, 2001.
• Kerr, Clark, John T. Dunlop, Frederick H. Harbison, and Charles A. Myers, Industrialism and Industrial Man: The Problem of Labor and Management in Economic Growth. Harvard University Press, 1960.
• Burress, Charles, "The Long, Hard Years at Berkeley; Second Volume of Clark Kerr’s Memoir Covers Politics and ‘Blunders'," San Francisco Chronicle, 9 February 2003, Sunday Review, p. 1.
• "UC Won’t Expel Sit-in Students," Los Angeles Times, 6 May 1964, p. 8.
• "The Arrests at Berkeley," New York Times, 5 December 1964, p. 30.
• Levine, Arthur (ed., 1993). Higher Learning in America. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

References

1. ^ Hechinger, Grace (2001-12-02). "Clark Kerr, Leading Public Educator and Former Head of California's Universities, Dies at 92". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A04E0DC1E3AF931A35751C1A9659C8B63. Retrieved 2008-02-10. 
2. ^ Seth Rosenfeld (2002-06-09). "The Campus Files". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://sfgate.com/news/special/pages/2002/campusfiles. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
3. ^ Seth Rosenfeld (2002-06-09). "The Campus Files: Trouble on campus". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/09/MNCF2.DTL. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
4. ^ Seth Rosenfeld (2002-06-09). "The Campus Files: The McCone Meeting". The San Francisco Chronicle. http://sfgate.com/news/special/pages/2002/campusfiles/documents/5b.shtml. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
5. ^ "Clark Kerr Campus". Living at Cal. U.C. Berkeley. 2008. http://www.housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/clarkkerr.html. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
6. ^ "UCSC - Virtual Tour: Kerr Hall". U.C. Santa Cruz. http://www.ucsc.edu/about/vtour/kerr.asp. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
7. ^ W.J. Rorabaugh, Berkeley at War: The 1960s, p. 12, quoted at http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt687004sg&chunk.id=d0e21648&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text

External links

• U.C. Berkeley news release
• San Francisco Chronicle, "Reagan, Hoover, and the UC Red Scare," 9 June 2002.
• AP obituary
• NPR All Things Considered - Educator Clark Kerr Dies at 92
• account of secret files of the FBI on Kerr, and Kerr's ouster.
• In Memoriam at the University of California.

Persondata
Name	Kerr, Clark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1911-05-17
Place of birth	Stony Creek, Pennsylvania, USA
Date of death	2003-12-01
Place of death	El Cerrito, California, USA