Westminster College - Blue Jay Yearbook (Fulton, MO)

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Board of Trustees. Elected by Southern Synod Elected by Northern SYU0d CLASS OF 1905 GRAHAM G, LACY V REV. MEADE C.'WILLIAMS, D. D, 4 T. S. MCPIIEETERS, LL. D. JUDGE E. P. GATES A REV. A. A. WALLACE, D. D. REV. JOHN F. HENDY, D. D. HON. R. M. WHITE REV. S. J. NICCOLLS, D. D.. LL. D. A 'CLASS OF 1906 f E. W. GRANT S. J. FISHER, LL. D. NOBLE B. MCKEE, Ph. D. LEE MONTGOMERY, ESQ. r LOUIS HUGGINS . REV. WM. J. MCKITTRICK, D. D. HON. WM. H. WALLACE GEORGE W. DULANV, ESQ. A CLASS OF 1907 REV. JOHN F. CANNON, D. D. BENJ. F. EDWARDS REV. W. R. DOBYNS, D. D. JOHN A. HOLMES J. R. MOOREHEAD C, GORDON KNOX JUDGE SAMUEL DAVIS I REV. HARRIS H. GREOG, D. D. ' A 'N I OFFICERS OF THE BOARD THOS. S. MCPHEETERS, President - I MEADE C. WILLIAMS, Vice-President A E. W. GRANT, Treasurer , . A A- A- WALLACE, Secretary E H MARQUESS ASS1Stant Sec and Bursar

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w LEXVIS MAYER CROCKETT CUXIIIZAU CANNON TEYIS RICE FERGUSON

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Our President. g AVID RAMSAY KERR was born near Adena, Harrison County, Ohio, March 2, 1850. In the latter years of the eighteenth century his forefathers had crossed the Alleghanies and the X25 Ohio to build homes in the then new west. Presbyterians they ,ig'3W',,s, were, strict followers of Calvin and Knox, and they and their W descendents became leading members in the early church organ- W' izations of their community. So the little boy David was brought , :ff XX up by the good old plan-oatmeal, the shorter catechism, and A farm life. At sixteen he first 'Kwent away to schooln for a few months. From 1868 to 1871 he was a successful teacher in the common schools, and in the summer a farmer at his father's home. Then followed a period of farming, teaching, and college-going until 1874, when he received his bachelor's degree from Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio. In college he distinguished himself as an efficient officer of his literary society, as catcher of the baseball team, and as a gallant young man. In 1876, being graduated from the Western Theological Seminary, at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, David R. Kerr entered upon the ministerial life. He was at once ordained and installed as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Jamestown, Pennsylvania, thus beginning a period of singularly happy and successful service in the church his fathers had served both in the old land and the new. June 12, 1879, he was married to Miss Martha Sharon Hill, at Steuben- ville, Ohio, and in 1882 accepted a call to Mercer, Pennsylvania, where he served till 1887. In that year a call came from the Southwest Church of Omaha, Ne- braska, and seeing the larger opportunities of the new west, Dr. Kerr and his family came to Omaha. In the fall of 1889, after having served as secretary of the board of trustees of Bellevue College, Dr. Kerr was pressed to take up the responsibilities of building up the college. He accepted reluctantly, after more than one invitation. In fifteen years Bellevue grew from one building and nineteen students to a well equipped plant of six buildings and over two hundred students. N Beside their struggles and burden-bearing, the years brought to the untiring president mellowness and broadness of mind and character. Dr. Henry Van Dyke wrote of him: 'LThe character of Dr. Kerr is a guarantee that the institution will be generous in its sympathies, firm in its principles, democratic in its tone, wise in its administration, and thorough in its intellectual discipline. The call to Westminster went to Dr. Kerr in the spring of 1904, and was accepted June 7, active work beginning July 15. He is ripe for his work. The 11zic1fz'01f, Chicago, remarked: The trustees of Westminster were guided by excellent discretion when they called to their presidency President David R. Kerr, of Bellevue College. They secured thus for the administration of their school a ripely experienced knowledge of college problems, a thoroughly self- disciplined governing power, and more than all an accurate understanding of the mission of a Presbyterian school of higher learningf' . 7 A