Sarah MacLennan Kerr

Abstract

Sarah MacLennan Kerr (Sally), Ph.D, served as the Executive Director of the American Geographical Society (AGS) and as Editor of the Geographical Review in the 1970's. Sally passed away on July 9, 2017. Sally received her Bachelor's Degree from Oberlin College in 1961. She received two Master Degrees, one from Stanford University in 1962 and the other from the University of Chicago in 1967. She received her Ph.D in Geography from the University of Chicago in 1971. As her daughters said on the occasion of her death, Sally was a intellectual and a breaker of glass ceilings. She was that - and much more! AGS was suffering in the 1970s, largely because of the economy of New York City and the declining neighborhood where the Society was located in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan. Sally recognized the reality that AGS could no longer support its magnificent and Map Collection (the Collection) in the neighborhood because scholars and other persons interested in geography were no longer willing to travel to the area. Working with AGS President, Richard Nolte, and with AGS Chairman, Serge Korff, Sally led the effort to transfer the Collection as a unified Research Library to a new venue where it could prosper. After a national search and receipt of a number of strong proposals from prominent institutions across the country, AGS chose to accept the proposal from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Litigation then ensued as the Attorney General of the State of New York and a number of New York academic institutions sued AGS in late 1976 to keep the books and maps of the Collection in New York State - - but scattered among various libraries in the State. As a young partner at Webster and Sheffield, a law firm in Manhattan that had represented the Society for decades, I was chosen to work with Sally and the AGS Council (i.e., its Board of Directors) in the effort to receive approval from the Courts of New York State for moving the Collection to Milwaukee. I worked directly with Sally for almost two full years. I learned that while she was an excellent writer and a intellectual, she was also a fierce advocate for the importance of geography, the AGS, and the AGS Collection. She was a savvy and indefatigable client. She rallied active support from the National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for Geographic Education, and numerous individual geographers. …