Clark Kerr was featured on the cover of Time Magazine on October 17 1960.  As a labor economist and labor negotiator, the Pennsylvania born Kerr earned the reputation as the “Machiavellian Quaker” during 500 labor negotiations.  By 1960 he was responsible for running the largest university system in the country and was charged with the responsibility of answering the following question:  “How will public universities cope with the coming generation of baby boomers (at that time aged 15 – 19)?  He answered this question by developing what became the Master Plan for Higher Education in California.

As an academic, educational, political and social leader, Kerr influenced a generation of students, academics and leaders.  He supported faculty who refused to sign an anti-communist loyalty oath during the McCarthy era and refused to initially expel UC-Berkeley students following the 1964 Free Speech Movement sit-ins.  The newly elected California Governor, Ronald Reagan, later fired him from his position as Chancellor for being too lenient during this time.

Clark Kerr graduated from Swarthmore College in 1932 and received his Master’s in Economics at Stanford University in 1933 and PH.D in economics from UC Berkeley in 1939 and studied at the London School of Economics in 1938 as the UC Newton Booth Fellow