Malcolm H. Kerr

Malcolm H. Kerr (October 8, 1931 – January 18, 1984) was a university professor, whose speciality was the Middle East and the Arab world. Although an American citizen, he was born and raised, and died, in Beirut, Lebanon. He served as President of the American University of Beirut, a major institution of learning.

Life and career

Education

Malcolm Kerr's youth was spent in Lebanon, on and near the campus of the American University of Beirut, where his parents taught for forty years.^[1] His parents Elsa Reckman and Stanley Kerr were married in Marash, where they met while rescuing Armenian women and orphans after the Armenian Genocide. They relocated to Beirut after the Marash Affair, and where his father became the chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at AUB and his mother was Dean of Women.^[2] During World War II the family relocated to Princeton University in New Jersey. After the war they returned to Beirut where Malcolm attended the American Community School at Beirut. Shortly thereafter, Malcolm went back alone to the USA, where he graduated from high school at the Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.

His undergraduate degree in 1953 came from Princeton University where he had studied with Professor Philip Hitti. An early onset of arthritis caused him to return to his family in Lebanon. He entered a masters program in Arabic studies,^[3] completing it in 1955 at the American University of Beirut. Here he met his wife, Ann Zwicker Kerr, with whom he had four children. He commenced his doctorate work in Washington, D.C., at the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, from where he received his Ph.D. in 1958. His dissertation was written under the guidance of Majid Khadduri and Sir Hamilton Gibb.^[4]

Professor at UCLA

Following his doctorate, Kerr returned to teach at the American University of Beirut for three years, joining as assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, in 1962. In 1962 itself he accepted a similar post of teaching at the University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA,^[5] assuming charge as full professor in 1973, being appointed as chairman of the Department of Political Science, and thenceforth as Dean of the Division of Social Sciences (1973-1976).

In 1959 his first book was published, emerging from his master's thesis: Lebanon in the Last Years of Feudalism. Then at Oxford University he did post-doctorate work for a year with Prof. Albert Hourani. While at Oxford Professor Gustave von Grunebaum recruited Kerr for a teaching post at the University of California at Los Angeles; his career matured over the course of twenty years teaching in Los Angeles, 1962 to 1982.

Professor Kerr and his family returned often to Beirut, Lebanon, during vacations and breaks from UCLA. In 1964-1965 an academic grant, however, sent him to Cairo, where he worked on his most well-known book The Arab Cold War, published in 1965. The next year he published Islamic Reform, a reworking of his doctorate dissertation. Following the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Prof. Kerr sensed a drastic change for the worse in the tone of Arab politics, which became harsh and bitter. In 1970-1971 he accepted an academic grant to France and North Africa; there he worked on a third edition of The Arab Cold War. Prof. Kerr served as president of the Middle East Studies Association in 1972. Subsequently, an award of the Middle East Studies Association was named in his honor.^[6]

His own scholarship was forthright and honest to the point of sometimes getting him into trouble. While he was often thought of as 'pro-Arab' in writing about the Israeli-Arab conflict, he could be as critical of the Arabs as he was of the Israelis. He spoke the truth as he saw it and was committed to the cause of Arab-Israeli peace and to building understanding between the Arab World and the West."^[7]

The Civil war in Lebanon (1975–1990), which often severely disrupted all life in Beirut, also interrupted the Kerr family's yearly travels. Accordingly, during 1976-1977 Kerr was again in Egypt, serving as 'visiting distinguished professor' at the American University in Cairo. Eventually he marshalled a Ford Foundation grant to fund a joint project of the Von Grunebaum Center at UCLA (which he then headed) and the Strategic Studies of the Al-Ahram Foundation in Egypt. He returned to Cairo in 1979, where he edited the results of this joint Egyptian-American academic effort, the book Rich and Poor States in the Middle East.

President of AUB

The Presidency of the American University of Beirut was offered to Prof. Kerr in 1982. Although the civil war in Lebanon was still being fiercely battled on occasion, with the recent exit of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Lebanese civil struggle for domestic change had been a more focused effort, thus encouraging hope for resolution. "Betting on these chances and feeling a sense of calling to the job, the Kerrs decided to go to Beirut." He accepted the position, serving as President for seventeen months. Appointed President in March, effective July 1, due to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut, he worked first from the New York office, arriving at his College Hall office at the University in September, 1982.^[8]

Death

On January 18, 1984, Kerr was shot and killed by two gunmen outside his office; he was 52. Years later, information regarding Kerr's assassins and their motives still remain uncertain, although an Islamic Jihadist took credit for the murder^{[9] [10]} Yet some doubt remains as to the perpetrator. News of his sudden death, which was yet another tragic event in the Lebanese civil war, appeared world-wide in the media.^[11]

Personal life

Malcolm was the oldest son of Elsa and Stanley Kerr, who settled in Beirut after rescuing Armenian women and orphans with the Near East Relief in Aleppo and Marash after the Armenian Genocide.^[2]

His son is the basketball player, executive and current Golden State Warriors head coach, Steve Kerr.^[12] His son-in-law, Hans van de Ven, is an expert on Chinese history at the University of Cambridge.

Selected publications

• Malcolm H. Kerr, Lebanon in the Last Years of Feudalism 1840-1868. A contemporary account by Antun Dahir Al-Aqiqi (American University of Beirut 1959)
• Malcolm H. Kerr, The Arab Cold War. Gamel Abd al-Nasr and his Rivals, 1958-1970 (Oxford University 1965, 3d ed. 1975)
• Malcolm H. Kerr, Islamic Reform. The political and legal theories of Muhammad 'Abduh and Rashid Ridā (Princeton University 1966)
• Malcolm H. Kerr, The Elusive Peace in the Middle East (SUNY 1975)
• Abraham S. Becker, Bent Hudson, & Malcolm H. Kerr, editors, Economics and Politics of the Middle East (New York: Elsevier 1975)
• Malcolm H. Kerr and al-Sayyid Yasin, editors, Rich and Poor States in the Middle East. Egypt and the New Arab Order (Westview 1982)
• Samir Seikaly and Ramzi Ba'labakki, editors, Quest for Understanding. Arabic and Islamic studies in honor of Malcolm H. Kerr (American University of Beirut 1991)

See also

• American University of Beirut

References