William Jasper Kerr (November 17, 1863 – April 15, 1947) was an American academic in the states of

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

and

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. A native of Utah, he served as president of

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering c ...

), known then as Oregon Agricultural College,

Brigham Young College Brigham Young College was a college and high school in Logan, Utah. It was founded by Brigham Young on 6 August 1877, 23 days before his death. He deeded several acres of land to a board of trustees for the development of a college. This was ...

(not to be confused with

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

), and

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah ...

), known then as Utah State Agricultural College. He later served as the first chancellor of what became the

Oregon State Board of Higher Education The Oregon State Board of Higher Education was the statutory governing board for the Oregon University System from 1909 to 2015. The board was composed of eleven members appointed by the Governor of Oregon and confirmed by the Oregon State Senate ...

, known then as the Oregon State Board of Higher Curricula. The administration building at Oregon State University is named in his honor.

Early life and education

Kerr was born on November 17, 1863, in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

in the then

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th state ...

. He received a bachelor's degree in Mathematics from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

in 1885. He planned to study law, and turned down appointment to

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

in order to go into law, but never did go into the profession. He married Leonora Hamilton in 1885, and had four daughters and two sons. When he was 21 years old he worked as a manager for a mercantile company before entering the teaching profession as a teacher in

Smithfield, Utah Smithfield is a city in Cache County, Utah, United States. The population was 9,495 at the 2010 United States Census, with an estimated population of 12,025 in 2019. It is included in the Logan, Utah-Idaho Logan metropolitan area, Metropolitan Sta ...

. Raised in

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church) during the time when plural marriage (polygamy) was taught and practiced, Kerr later married a second wife, Lois Cordelia Morehead, a schoolteacher in

and they had two children, a son and a daughter. After the church renounced the practice, Kerr divorced his second wife in 1898. The emotional impact caused Kerr and his wives to leave the LDS Church. Kerr served as a delegate to the Utah's constitutional conventions in both 1887 and 1895. He also studied at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in New York.

Career

Kerr began his academic career in 1887 when he joined the faculty of

as a mathematics professor. He also taught at the University of Utah. He then served as president of

in Logan, Utah, from 1894 to 1900. In 1900, he left Brigham Young to become the president of

, also in Logan. Kerr left Utah State in 1907 and became the eighth president at

(OSU), in Corvallis, Oregon. When he was considered for president of the university in 1907, the public animosity for Mormonism invited attacks on Kerr's polygamous past, until he reasserted his rejection of the faith. He served as the president of OSU for 25 years, 1907 until 1932. As president, he oversaw a large expansion of the school, adding 23 buildings and growing the campus from to . As part of the expansion he hired John C. Olmsted to draft a master plan for OSU's campus. In 1911, he was the president of the Association of Land Grant Colleges and Universities. Kerr left OSU in 1932 when he became the first chancellor of the

Oregon State System of Higher Education The Oregon University System (OUS) was administered by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education (the "Board") and the Chancellor of the OUS, who was appointed by the Board. It was disbanded in June 2015. OUS was responsible for governing the s ...

serving in that position until 1935.

Death and legacy

Following his retirement, Kerr moved to

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, where he died on April 15, 1947, at the age of 83. The library at Oregon State University had been named in his honor, but after it was renamed as

The Valley Library The Valley Library is the primary library of Oregon State University and is located at the school's main campus in Corvallis in the U.S. state of Oregon. Established in 1887, the library was placed in its own building for the first time in 1918 ...

his name was added to the administration building.

References

External links

* . * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, William Jasper 1863 births 1947 deaths Cornell University alumni Former Latter Day Saints People from Richmond, Utah Educators from Portland, Oregon Presidents of Oregon State University University of Utah alumni University of Utah faculty Presidents of Utah State University Utah politicians