Traverse City Record-Eagle

Archive: Tuesday

June 12, 2012

Richard C. Kerr

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LELAND — Richard Clinton Kerr, 80, of Leland, and newspaperman for more than 45 years, passed away on Saturday, June 9, 2012, at his home.

Mr. Kerr was a reporter/photographer for the Hillsdale Daily News for several months until the Ann Arbor News opened an Ypsilanti news bureau in late 1953. He became news editor of the Ypsilanti Daily Press in 1964. He was editor of The Press from 1969-71 under two subsequent ownerships, and later was director of the Information Services Office at Eastern Michigan University from 1971-74. In 2009 he printed a book on his 40-plus years in newspapering, "Of Cabbages and Kings."

In 1975, Dick purchased the Leelanau Enterprise weekly newspaper in Leelanau County, where the family had vacationed for many years. He retired as editor and publisher in September 1997.

While an Ypsilanti resident from 1954-75, Dick was a director and president of the Ypsilanti Junior Chamber of Commerce, a vice president of the Chamber of Commerce and the longtime chairman of the Civil Service Commission, responsible for hiring and promotions in the city's Fire Department.

Fall Friday nights and Saturday afternoons for many years were spent taking pictures for the sport department at home and away Michigan and high school football games. He was a founding director of the Ypsilanti Junior Football League and managed a Little League baseball team. He played softball for many years on the JCC and Congregational Church teams.

He was born at Bridgeport, Conn., on Sept. 25, 1931, a son of Raymond C. and Ethel I. Kerr. The family lived during the Depression with his paternal grandmother in Schenectady, N.Y., until moving to Ann Arbor in the mid-1941. The Kerrs moved to Manchester in 1950, where Dick lived until his marriage June 26, 1954, and moved to Ypsilanti.

He was a varsity football and tennis player at Ann Arbor High School before graduating in 1949 and enrolling at Hillsdale College, where he was a four-year varsity football player. He was a member of Delta Sigma Phi social fraternity, president of Omicron Delta Kappa men's leadership fraternity, editor of the college's weekly newspaper for more than two years and student manager of the campus dining room.

Dick was a member and president of Hillsdale College's Alumni Executive Board from 1972-77, and received an alumni achievement award in 1970 and a business achievement award in the late 1970s. He was a longtime member of the President's Club.

In Leelanau County, he was a secretary-treasurer of the Prospectors Club for 11 terms and served eight years as an elected Leland Township Personnel Committee. From 1989 to 2012 he was the public information officer for the county's Emergency Operations Center staff.

He is survived by three children, R. Clint (Lynne) Kerr, Jr., of Traverse City, Kathleen K. (Dave) Easter, of Empire, and Karen K. (Dale) Inman, of Traverse City; seven grandchildren, Rich III, Kaitlin (Kerr) Rhoades, Kelly Kerr, Erin (Easter) Crowther, Erika Easter, Adam and Amy Inman.

He was preceded in death by his parents, of Manchester, and in 2006 by his brother, Elton R. (Mike) Kerr.

A gathering of friends and family will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 16, at Martinson Funeral Home of Suttons Bay. Afterwards, a celebration of Dick's life will continue at the Village Inn, Suttons Bay.

Memorials may be directed to the Leelanau Co. Prospectors Club Scholarship Fund, Attn: David Baldwin, 5600 W. MacFarlane Rd., Glen Arbor, MI 49636, and/or to Hillsdale College, 33 E. College St., Hillsdale, MI 49242.

Arrangements are with Martinson Funeral Home of Suttons Bay.

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