Talk:Malcolm H. Kerr

Malcolm Kerr's profile

 * 1. Kerr served as President (1982-1984) of the American University of Beirut, a major institution of learning in the Middle East (claiming the best medical and engineering schools in the Middle East and Africa).
 * 2. He was an assistant (1962), an associate (1963), and then a full Professor (1967-1982), at the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.), among the best universities in the world.
 * 3. He was Director of the Von Grunebaum Center for Middle East Studies at U.C.L.A.
 * 4. He was President of the Middle East Studies Association in 1972, the largest organization of professors and scholars in this field. Its Malcolm H. Kerr Dissertation Award is named in his honor.
 * 5. He was "visiting distinguished professor" at the American University in Cairo, where he organized a joint research project involving academics of Egypt and the U.S.A.
 * 6. News of his death was carried world-wide.
 * For example, regarding television coverage in the U.S.A., on "The Today Show" (interview), on "CBS Morning News" (interview), on "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour" (interview).
 * The then President of the U.S.A. Ronald Reagan said, "He was a highly respected member of the academic world and as President of the American Univeristy of Beirut, worked tirelessly and courageously to maintain the principles of academic freedom and excellence in education. His work strengthened the historic, cultural, and academic ties between the United States and Lebanon and other countries of the Middle East."
 * The then President of Lebanon Amin Gemayel expressed to the media his condemnation of the assassination and his condolences.
 * The American University of Beirut closed its campus for five days in mourning and remembrance.
 * 7. He preparation for his academic career included study under Philip Hitti, Majid Khadduri, Hamilton Gibb, and Albert Hourani, and he was later chosen by Gustave von Grunebaum to teach alongside him at U.C.L.A. All these professors are recognized for excellence.
 * 8. Not least, probably the most important, his writings were well-received and of lasting value. Elfelix (talk) 00:00, 12 February 2011 (UTC)

Merge with existing article
Malcolm Kerr (academic) Mporter (talk) 08:01, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Reply to merger suggestion

 * 1. When considering the start of a new article, a search was made for "Malcolm H. Kerr". The first-page results mentioned no, none, nada references to the article "Malcolm Kerr (academic)". Since that search very soon began to refer to seeming remote or totally irrelevant materials, that search was deemed to be sufficient. Malcolm H. Kerr is arguably the name most commonly known, as he signed his books that way.
 * 2. When starting "Malcolm H. Kerr" an auto-delete message demanded immediate 'proof' that such a person as Malcolm H. Kerr merited an article at Wikipedia. Hence the above "Profile". No mention was made that another, similar article, i.e., "Malcolm Kerr (academic)", already existed.
 * 3. Some sort of merger appears warranted. Whoever makes it will, hopefully, be inclusive and not shed any of the information included in either of the two articles now existing. Each has strengths and pertinent detail in different areas. Yet what ever merger results, it may then be improved. Elfelix (talk) 20:17, 19 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I was unaware that two separate articles existed. Thanks to the merger, I am now aware of Malcolm H. Kerr.  I'm ambivalent about which article-title is better, but the content from the two articles should definitely be merged.  I will take a good look at both this afternoon and work on merging.  Nimur (talk) 20:28, 19 February 2011 (UTC)

Re merger suggestion
See Malcolm H. Kerr: 'Discussion'. Elfelix (talk) 20:24, 19 February 2011 (UTC)


 * On 20 March 2013, this article was augmented by Jamesx12345. The additional material (text and bibliography) was taken from the now defunct article Malcolm H. Kerr; it more than doubled this article's [bit] content. The defunct article now #REDIRECTS here to Malcolm Kerr (academic). Elfelix (talk) 07:17, 19 August 2014 (UTC) Elfelix (talk) 16:35, 9 October 2014 (UTC)  Elfelix (talk) 01:44, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

The merge went the wrong way as the subject's name is Malcolm H. Kerr, so the article should be at that title. I have now corrected this.  SilkTork  ✔Tea time  17:15, 1 April 2016 (UTC)

legal filing in 2003
The following sentence:
 * The late AUB president's family filed legal papers against the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2003 relating to the matter.

was in the Steve Kerr article. As it's both unsourced and about Malcolm Kerr I'm moving it here as it seems like something that could go in this article once WP:RS are found that support the claim. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 16:52, 8 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Malcolm H. Kerr. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20091222205532/http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/excellence/kerr.htm to http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/excellence/kerr.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 02:21, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Reason for death
At present the article has:
 * "Years later, information regarding Kerr's assassins and their motives still remain uncertain."

The Wikipedia article on his son, Steve Kerr has considerably more detail but it also conflicts with what we have for Malcolm Kerr.


 * Malcolm Kerr was killed by members of the Shia Lebanese militia called Islamic Jihad on the morning of January 18, 1984, at the age of 52 while he was serving as president of the American University of Beirut.   He was shot twice in the back of his head, by gunmen using suppressed handguns, in the hallway outside his office.

While details of how and where he was killed seem to agree I'm not sure how to best consolidate the part about who he was killed by and why. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 17:50, 14 October 2022 (UTC)


 * I think we should incorporate this information into the article if it's reliably sourced. The question is, are those sources strong enough? All of them just secondarily report Malcolm Kerr's death, it feels a bit of a cop out. Where are they getting that info from? I haven't read his daughter's book, but does that shed some light? If so, we could incorporate as "Susan Kerr believes her father was killed by..." Yr Enw (talk) 20:33, 10 November 2023 (UTC)