John Austin Kerr Ph.D. Jr.

1934 - 2025

John Austin Kerr, Jr. PhD
Born: April 9, 1934 in Bahia, Brazil
Died: April 17, 2025 in DeKalb, IL
John died peacefully at home in the early hours of April 17th, 2025 at the age of 91. He was born in Bahia, Brazil on April 9th, 1934, to Janet (MacLennan) and Dr. John Austin Kerr.
Since his father was an epidemiologist researching tropical diseases, as a child he lived in Colombia, Sardinia, and India, as well as Brazil and the United States.
Some formative experiences involved his fondness for animals, notably the small donkeys in Sardinia, as well as several dogs and cats during his life. Interests included photography, models, engineering, aviation and languages. In the fall of 1954, John survived the crash of a KLM flight taking off from Shannon Airport (Ireland), in which almost half the passengers died.
He earned a Bachelor's Degree at Cornell University and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After college, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served with Military Intelligence, in Oahu, Hawaii. After the Army he received a Masters in Education from Cornell and taught high school at McDonogh School in Maryland. He later earned a Doctorate degree in Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in Portuguese Literature.
John taught at Ohio State and Stanford Universities before getting tenure at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, where he taught Spanish and Portuguese for over 25 years.
In his 60's he fulfilled his dream of getting his private pilot's license, and flew his own plane for several years.
He leaves behind his wife Linda, son Ian (Kyoko), daughter Katherine Kerr, and stepsons Caleb (Lis) and Hayden Hallgren, as well as his grandson Stuart Kerr.
There will be a small service to commemorate his life sometime this summer. John was a lifelong animal lover and in lieu of flowers, any contributions to The Barn on Baseline (www.thebarnonbaseline.org) would be appreciated.