Vale Professor Alex Kerr

Professor Alex Kerr passed away on 30th December 2018. His passing at the great age of 97 is not a surprise but is an occasion for sorrow. He lived a near century’s worth of Australian history which saw him join the RAAF in 1940, a pilot in No. 115 Squadron RAF in Wellingtons, wounded and shot down over Germany. He gained substantial education qualifications from Oxford and London while a POW, played in a jazz band and prepared himself for post war life.

He became an educator and economist of substance. I was aware of him when I was a student at The University of Western Australia but more so as a friend of my father. After I returned from studying in England I was a junior colleague of his when he became Foundation Professor of Economics at Murdoch University.

Professor Kerr was a man of deep friendships and broad social sympathies. While strongly committed to the free enterprise system he had an egalitarian social bent. He outlived his friends but not his admirers. He was an important part of the West Australian community and his passing should be noted with sorrow and his life with gratitude.  

The Honourable Kim Beazley AC, Governor of Western Australia

View all Articles