Clark Kerr, the renowned University of California president who in the 1960s oversaw the system's first tidal wave of enrollment and the Free Speech Movement that ultimately led to his firing, has died. He was 92.
Kerr died Monday afternoon due to complications from a fall, according to a statement by UC Berkeley.
Kerr was president of the UC from 1958 to 1967, a time of enrollment growth as a result of college-bound baby boomers, orchestrating the opening of the San Diego, Irvine and Santa Cruz campuses.
Reagan used the Berkeley Free Speech Movement in his campaign for governor in 1966, promising to do what Kerr couldn't - sweep demonstrators out of Berkeley. After winning the election, Reagan used his new position as president of the UC Board of Regents to orchestrate Kerr's firing in January 1967.
In 2002, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the FBI had targeted Kerr as part of an extensive campaign to suppress people at the UC deemed subversive. President Johnson had picked Kerr to become his secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. But the FBI background check on Kerr included damaging information the bureau knew to be false, and Johnson withdrew the nomination, according to FBI documents obtained by the newspaper.
Before serving as president, Kerr was chancellor at UC Berkeley. Two years later, he led the effort to devise the Master Plan for Higher Education, which mapped out access and institutional roles of public California colleges.
Trouble erupted in 1964, when Berkeley students led the Free Speech Movement, protesting a ban on political activities on campus. On Dec. 2, nearly 800 students were arrested at a sit-in.
Kerr's successor as Berkeley chancellor had wanted to take a hard line with the protesters. Kerr disagreed, and his stance eventually led to his firing.
Kerr obtained a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College, a master's from Stanford University and his doctorate in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
He taught at a number of universities before settling permanently in Berkeley in 1945 as associate professor of industrial relations and founding director of the Institute of Industrial Relations.
Four years later, as the Cold War took hold, professors were ordered to sign a loyalty oath repudiating communism or they lose their jobs. Kerr signed, but took a strong stand with regents against firing faculty who didn't.
From Daily Bruin staff and wire services.