2020 -- H 7387

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LC004086

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2020

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

EXPRESSING CONDOLENCES ON THE PASSING OF ALAN KERR

     Introduced By: Representatives Ajello, Shekarchi, Walsh, Noret, and Fogarty

     Date Introduced: January 30, 2020

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Alan Kerr, a distinguished longtime automotive and travel journalist for the

Providence Journal, passed away on January 18, 2020; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Kerr was born in 1935 in Berlin, Germany, to foreign correspondent

Melvin Whiteleather and Eleanor Lindsay Whiteleather. He made worldwide news when, as a

six-month old infant, he became the youngest person to fly on the famous airship the Hindenberg;

and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Kerr returned from Europe to the United States in 1941. He graduated

from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C., in 1954, and subsequently entered the

United States Army and served our nation with distinction for three years; and

     WHEREAS, After completing his military service obligations, Mr. Kerr enrolled in the

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, from which he graduated in 1961 with a degree in

journalism. Prior to entering college, Mr. Kerr had signed up for a speed writing class where he

met the love of his life, Jessie Parry-Hill. After a one year courtship, they married in 1958 and

were together for sixty-one years; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Kerr began his distinguished journalism career as a reporter with the

Durham Morning Herald. He went on to work for the Charlotte Observer where he worked as a

writer, editor and manager. In 1969, he reported on the disturbances at NCA&T University from a

phone booth in a crouching position to avoid gunfire; and

     WHEREAS, After working as a journalist for a decade, Mr. Kerr enrolled in the Master’s

program at the University of Florida, graduating in 1978. He then proceeded to embark on a

career in academia, serving as a professional advisor to the student newspaper at the University of

Florida, teaching journalism at Northern Arizona University, and serving as the Faculty Advisor

to the University’s student newspaper; and

     WHEREAS, Mr. Kerr returned to the news business in 1979. He finished his remarkable

journalism career with the Providence Journal, where he worked as the Auto Editor and “took

great pleasure in test-driving cars through ‘the curves of hell’ at the I-295 and Route 6

interchange”; and

     WHEREAS, In addition to his wife, Jessie, Mr. Kerr is survived by his son and daughter-

in-law, Jason and Janet, daughter, Mandy, and his beloved canine companion, Freddy; now,

therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby expresses its condolences to the Kerr Family on the passing of

Alan Kerr; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Mrs. Jessie Kerr and Family.

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