Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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V President W. J. KERR. D. Sc.

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$re£tbent err William Jasper Kerr came to this state in the summer of 1907 and became a candidate for the presidency of the Oregon Agricultural College. He was introduced by college and university presidents, prominent educators, pastors of churches, journalists and men of high standing in public and private life as a man “of adequate scholarship . . of splendid character, of great executive and administrative ability . . . “a capable educator and a sincere and true Christian gentleman. The regents, conscious of the significance which attached to the choice of the executive who was to direct the course of an institution which promised to have such a powerful influence in moulding the welfare of the commonwealth, after a thorough investigation, unanimously elected him president of the College. The members of the college community and the people of the state, with characteristic American self-reliance, wished him well but suspended judgment. It is the belief of the writer of this sketch that he is not in any way creating but only fa.rly and honestly recording the verdict of the community which suspended judgment in the beginning in order that it might know the truth m ns own way. The verdict pronounced after the passage of three years is here presented without hesitation and without qualification because with exceptional unanimity a community of citizens, students and faculty members, acting with independent judgment, have arrived at the same conclusion. Hr. Kerr qu.ckly grasped the essentials of his problem and vigorously proceeded with its solution. The institution was entirely reorganized, the faculty strengthened; the buildings and equipment were added to and improved; tne standard of the instructional work was raised; the problems of the state relating to material progress were investigated and adopted. Today the College is recognized as one of the strongest of its kind and is pulsing in hanuony with the vigorous heart-throbs of Oregon and the West. I he moiing spit it in this great work is the President. His unbounded entmisiasm, his exceptional capacity for work, his ample learning and his gum lie .sympathy have served at once as an inspiration and as an example. He demands results from the mcmbeis of the faculty but in return he imposes confidence and trust, and judges wi.h consideration and fairness. He exacts respect and obedience and earnest endeavor from the students but meets tnem with perfect understanding and keen sympathy. He handles the foreign affairs of the College in a manner that has won for him respect ai.d honor from men of affairs in the state and in the nation. He is one of those rare men who unde.stand b. th people and conditions. With this knowledge of work done, and with these facts learned from observation of the methods used, and by contact with the man, the college community has arrived at a verdict which is in absolute harmony with his introduction and which, simply stated, is that ‘‘Dr. Kerr is a brilliant scholar, an able executive and a true gentleman. And now two organizations representing the highest ideals in American educational endeavor seem to have arrived at the same conclusion; for l)r. Kerr has been elected Vice-President of the National Educational Association and President of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations. 10

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Professor Skelton Dean Covell Dr. Withycombe Professor Lake Dean Cordley