Robert S. Kerr

Robert Samuel Kerr (September 11, 1896 – January 1, 1963) was an American businessman and politician from Oklahoma. Kerr formed a petroleum company before turning to politics. He served as the 12th governor of Oklahoma from 1943 to 1947 and was elected three times to the United States Senate. Kerr worked natural resources, and his legacy includes water projects that link the Arkansas River via the Gulf of Mexico. He was the first Oklahoma governor born in the territory of the state.

Early life

thumb|left|Kerr was born in this cabin near Ada, Oklahoma.

Kerr was born in a log cabin in Pontotoc County — near what is now Ada — in Indian Territory, the son of William Samuel Kerr, a farmer, clerk, and politician, and Margaret Eloda Wright. Kerr's upbringing as a Southern Baptist had a profound influence on his life. Not only did his religious beliefs lead him to teach Sunday school and to shun alcohol throughout his adulthood, it also aided his political aspirations in a conservative state where Baptists were the single largest denomination. He enrolled at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee as a junior in high school. He later attended and graduated from East Central Normal School in Ada. He briefly studied law at the University of Oklahoma until poverty forced him to drop out in 1916. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Kerr was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the army.

Kerr used his new family connections to enter the oil business with his brother-in-law, James L. Anderson, as his partner. By 1929 the Anderson-Kerr Drilling Company had become so prosperous that Kerr abandoned his law practice to focus on oil. Anderson retired in 1936, and Dean A. McGee, former chief geologist for Phillips Petroleum, joined the firm, which changed its name in

1946 to Kerr-McGee Oil Industries, Incorporated. Kerr-McGee diversified into global drilling for petroleum and processed other fuels and minerals, including uranium and helium.

Political career

upright|thumb|left|Kerr as governor

Kerr's growing wealth and business ties made him a power in state Democratic politics during the 1930s. He worked to raise funds for both Governors E.W. Marland and Leon C. Phillips. In 1940, he was elected as Democratic national committeeman for Oklahoma. When not cultivating legislators, the governor prepared his state to weather postwar economic storms. Kerr traveled more than 400,000 miles to sell Oklahoma's products and potential throughout the nation. Not coincidentally, Kerr's boosterism also promoted his own political fortunes. In 1944 he was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, where he played a back-room role in the selection of Harry S. Truman as vice president. During World War II, despite the tendency of Oklahomans to keep the federal government at arm's length, Kerr promoted ties to the government, knowing how important the jobs and activity were to create prosperity. Oklahoma became home to many wartime industries and was a training site for military personnel. After the war, he called for increased spending to allow for post-war development of the state. He used his success as governor to catapult himself into the U.S. Senate in 1948. in favor of more mundane topics such as oil policies and public works. He believed Oklahomans would benefit most, and support him strongly, if he concentrated on concrete economic matters.

In a closely-contested race, Kerr became the first Oklahoma governor elected to the Senate. He had Presidential aspirations briefly in 1952, but he failed to win the Democratic nomination. Instead he devoted his energies to building his Senate career.

Kerr's activism on natural gas regulation quickly won him a reputation among his colleagues for being a staunch defender of his region and its special interests, including his own petroleum company. His personality reinforced these first impressions. Kerr's colleagues widely considered him a brilliant debater who overwhelmed his opponents with his passion and his mastery of policy detail.

thumb|left|[[Wernher von Braun and Kerr, a chairman of the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences, break ground for Marshall Space Flight Center's new Central Laboratory and Office Facility in 1961.]]

Following the 1952 disappointment, Kerr abandoned all hopes of becoming a presidential candidate and threw himself completely into his legislative work. He built alliances with the powerful southern and western Democrats who dominated the Senate, including Richard Russell of Georgia and Lyndon Johnson of Texas. On these friends he relied heavily. He also relied on careful committee preparation to pursue regional economic development.

The Arkansas River Navigation System (better known as the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System) became Kerr's defining goal through his three terms in the Senate. This $1.2 billion federal project, centered in northeastern Oklahoma, fostered more than $3 billion in commercial and industrial development in the Arkansas River basin during the two years after its completion in 1971. A once stagnant portion of Oklahoma quickly emerged as a regional economic hub.

Kerr served, in addition, on several key Senate committees, most notably the Finance and Public Works committees. He chaired the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences from 1961 to his death, and delivered a keynote speech at the June 1962 dedication of Space Park in California.

As a petroleum executive, Kerr championed petroleum and natural gas interests and advocated for the conservation of natural resources. His father had told him, "To raise a family, you have to have three things – land, wood and water."

thumb|right|An aerial view of the Robert S. Kerr Lock and Dam that forms [[Robert S. Kerr Reservoir on the Arkansas River in Oklahoma. The Kerr-McClellan Arkansas River Navigation System is co-named to honor Kerr for his role in obtaining funding and legislation to build the system.]]

The legislative acumen that Kerr displayed, combined with changes in congressional leadership, had the effect of increasing his importance to John F. Kennedy as an ally for programs on Capitol Hill. On issues of common interest, such as space and taxes, Kerr co-operated with Kennedy to guarantee mutual success; but on areas of disagreement, including Medicare, Kerr stymied the president. In January 1963, the Wall Street Journal summarized the relationship with only some exaggeration: "Mr. Kennedy asked; Mr. Kerr decided."

Death

In December 1962, Kerr was hospitalized in Washington for a respiratory illness, and was also found to have coronary artery disease; he died there from a heart attack on January 1, 1963, at the age of 66. Shortly after he died, an article written by an Associated Press reporter agreed with the title of The Saturday Evening Post tribute. Both called Kerr "The Uncrowned King of the Senate." He was first buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Oklahoma City, but his body was later moved to the Kerr homestead in Ada, Oklahoma. The Carl Albert Center at the University of Oklahoma houses Kerr's papers from his years in the U.S. Senate, his gubernatorial papers and his speeches.

In 1956, Senator Kerr was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.

Kerr's death contributed to Kennedy's legislative difficulties in 1963, marked the end of the Democratic party's dominance in Oklahoma politics, and signaled the passing of a major figure in the oil industry. But in addition to an estate estimated to be worth at least $35 million, he left a legacy that extended beyond partisan or business affairs. His forceful use of the federal government to spur regional development, an approach shared by contemporaries, including Johnson, helped integrate the South and Southwest into the national economy. The rise of the "Sunbelt" ultimately transformed all aspects of American life. Robert Kerr played a significant role in that transformation.

Children

Robert Kerr's son Bill Kerr was a cofounder and major patron of the National Museum of Wildlife Art overlooking the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming.

References

Morgan, Anne Hodges. Robert S. Kerr: The Senate Years (1977).
Salter, J. T. Public Men in and out of Office(1946) ch 25.

External links

Robert S. Kerr Collection and Photograph Collection at the Carl Albert Center