Malcolm Kerr
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- This article refers to the late president of the American University of Beirut, born in Lebanon to American missionary parents. For the Australian politician, see Malcolm Kerr (Australian politician).
Malcolm Hooper Kerr (1931–1984) was a political scientist and teacher who was an expert on Middle East politics. His best known book is The Arab Cold War; Gamal Abd al-Nasir and His Rivals, 1958-1970.
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[edit] Early life
The son of American missionary Stanley Kerr, Malcolm Kerr was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Kerr was raised near the American University of Beirut (AUB), where his parents taught.
[edit] Career
He went on to college at Princeton University where he earned his undergraduate degree in International Relations with a specialization in the Middle East. He later earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins School of International Relations (spending two years of this time at Harvard University), with a dissertation on the political and legal theories of Muhammad Abduh and Rashid Rida in early twentieth century Egypt.
Kerr's first teaching position was at AUB where he taught for three years in the Political Science Department. Thereafter, Kerr went on to teach at UCLA in the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Department of Political Science. He later became chairman of the Department of Political Science.
After a 20 year career at UCLA, Kerr returned to his native Beirut to assume the position of President of the American University of Beirut in 1982. On January 18, 1984, Kerr was shot and killed near his office, probably by members of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad.[1] He was the father of former professional basketball player and current Phoenix Suns general manager Steve Kerr, the most accurate three-point shooter in the history of the National Basketball Association upon his retirement in 2003.
[edit] Notes
In her taped interviews (2006) Kay Griggs, ex-wife of USMC Commandant Col George Griggs, claimed that Malcolm Kerr was killed by a team of assassins which included her husband and which was operating out of AU Beirut. [[1]]
[edit] External links
Malcolm Kerr's review of Edward Said's Orientalism.
