Emporia State University - Sunflower Yearbook (Emporia, KS)

Page 29 text:

THOMAS WALTER BUTCHER President

Page 28 text:

THE STATE BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION Henry J. Allen, Topeka Governor, Chairman Cex odlciol ' E. L. Barrier, Eureka Wilbur N. Mason, Baldwin H. J. Penney, Hays

Page 30 text:

0 Dean of Women b Occasionally, a person is found whose first words seem l I to establish a current of friendship that extends a lifetime. Mrs. Kerr is such. Though this is her first year as our i Dean of Women, she has never been a stranger to us. To 1 Qi' I hear her speak is like feeling a handclasp that invites at l 5 iin. V .X ' once confidence, respect and intimacy. She delights in gain- i ing the friendship and confidence of the girls, and she looks l J i after their material welfare as well. She knows personally Q X . ' the condition of every rooming house in -town, and she keeps I ' in touch with the girls so that cases of illness may be re- ported at once. Delinquencies in grades are promptly ins vestigated by her, and the cause remedied if possible. In addition to her personal work with the Normal girls, Mrs. Kerr plays an important part in the administration of the social activities of the school. She is a member of the Faculty Council and the Social Committee, and she conducts a class in Campus Proh- lems which brings important matters connected with school life before the students. Her freshmen lectures are an inspiration to every new girl entering the school, while her Thursday afternoon teas are a means of bringing the faculty members together in a most delightful way. Mrs. Kerr's influence is not confined to the Normal alone. She is president of the down-town Y. W. C. A., and is well known as a competent organizer of such work. During the war she was associated with Mr. Kerr in library work in France. Mrs. Willis H. Kerr The Library There is no Mr. Dean Kerr. Some men are known as the husbands of their wivesg but though Mrs. Kerr is justly well known and appreciated, she does not shed a reflected halo upon Mr. Kerr, for he is quite brilliant enough in his own name. Willis Holmes Kerr has his A. B. from Bellevue College, Nebraska, and his A. M. from Columbia. In 1907 and 1908, he studied education and English literature in Edinburgh University, receiving the class essay prize. He! has spent seven seasons in European travel, including overseas li- brary war service in 1918 and 1919. Mr. Kerr hag taught English, Philosophy and Library Science, in Bellevue College, Westminister College and the Kansas State Normal School, at the same time being either chief or assistant librarian. He has taken active part in the A. L. A., the N. E. A., the N. C. T. E., and in three state library associations. Twenty- four articles by Mr. Kerr have- appeared in educational publications since 1907. Since 1911, except for his leave of absence in Washington and Paris during the war, Mr. Kerr has been librarian at K. S. N. An amateur in biography is really in a bad way. Much he could say, and should say, but book--reviewers and press-agents have cheapened the value of adjectives un- til nothing is left to the scribbler but to say sincerely but rather unpretentiously, He-'s nice and we like him. Let him go? Not unless Kansas wheat ceases to create ex- citement in Wall Street, and Kansas legislators fail to stop the exodus of the biggest men-from our state schools. Willis H. Kerr 28