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Charlotte Herman Kerr, M.D., was born on May 25, 1920, in Champaign, Illinois. Her father worked for printing service at the University of Illinois. That may have entered into her college choice.
At Illinois, she became a member of Pi Beta Phi. She spent her summers working as a camp counselor at Camp Kiwanis in Mahomet, Illinois. Her undergraduate major was home economics and she graduated with honors. She was a member of Alpha Lambda Delta, Torch and Phi Upsilon Omicron honor societies. In addition, she was president of the Home Economics Club and the Women’s Athletic Association.
After graduation, she taught at the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. According to a report in The Arrow of Pi Beta Phi, she was “in charge of the home-economics department, has built up and maintained interest in her program for the high school girls. She has also worked with the adult women.”
After her stint at the Settlement School, she went to Ames, Iowa, where she enrolled in a master’s in nutrition program. In 1944, she graduated from Iowa State University and returned to Champaign where she spent the year as a research associate and earned another Illinois degree in 1946. She was awarded the Pi Beta Phi Fellowship for 1944-45. There was only one fellowship available in those days, and the competition was quite keen. That she was the one to whom it was awarded is a very big deal.
She returned to the University of Illinois and entered its College of Medicine in Chicago. In a cohort of 150 students, she was one of 18 women – about 8% of the class – and she graduated in the top 10%.
On Saturday, August 10, 1946, she married Dr. John Edwin Kerr. He was a member of Alpha Gamma Rho and had a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Iowa State University. At the time of their wedding, he was “awaiting orders for his commission in army as a veterinary surgeon.”
She earned her M.D. in 1948. Shortly after her graduation, her brother, Lt. Everett W. Herman, was killed in a training plane crash in Virginia. He had started his college degree at the University of Illinois where he became a member of Phi Kappa Psi. He transferred to and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy. The family had been together at the Chicago graduation just prior to his death.
Kerr did rotations at Cook County Hospital for her internship. A residency in obstetrics followed at the Salvation Army Booth Hospital. Kerr stayed in Chicago and became an attending physician at Passavant Memorial Hospital and Cook County Hospital. She also served as an Instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Northwestern University School of Medicine.
However, her husband, the veterinarian became her husband, the urologist. He graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1953.
Kerr moved to Michigan City, Indiana, in 1958. There she became Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Anthony Hospital, Memorial Hospital, and LaPorte Community Hospital.
The Kerrs moved from the midwest to Florida in 1974, and set up practices in Seminole.
She became a member of the Chicago branch of the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) upon her graduation in 1948. Kerr served as the branch president of in 1958. She also was active in the national organization. Among the positions she held were Treasurer (1965, 1971), Councillor for Growth and Development (1973), Second Vice President (1974) and President (1977). In 1984, the organization honored her with its Elizabeth Blackwell Award.
Kerr also belonged to the American Medical Association, the Florida State Medical Association, the Pinellas County Medical Society, and the Central Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology. In addition, she was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American College for Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In 1973, she was appointed as a consultant to the FDA’s Advisory Panel for Obstetric and Gynecologic Devices. She chaired the panel in 1977. At about the same time, she was a member of the FDA’s Ad Hoc Committee for the Study of Intrauterine Devices.
She was honored by the University of Illinois in 1988 and received an Alumni Achievement Award, its highest recognition. She had received a Home Economics Alumni Award of Merit in 1980. Kerr died June 22, 2006 at the age of 86.
The photo of Dr. Kerr in the Illini Union.
