RAYMOND EARL KERR


The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume II.
pg. 358.



The profession of civil engineering attracts to it only men of
wide vision and serious and constructive mind, and what it has
achieved in America alone, even within the lifetime of a 
middle-aged man of today, is stupendous to calculate.  The
pioneering civil engineer is one of the greatest of aids to
civilization and world-wide commerce.  West Virginia, with her
noble mountains to be crossed and her beautiful streams to be 
bridged, has produced able men in this professioon, and one
who has become far more than locally prominent is Raymond 
Earl Kerr, who has been concerned in many mportant construction
projects at Morgantown and elsewhere.

Mr. Kerr was born at Parkersburg, West Virginia, February 12, 
1884, and is a son of Charles Hugh and Lillie (Atkinson) Kerr,
a grandson of Samuel Kerr, who was born in Greene County,
Pennsylvania, and was a son of Charles Kerr, who removed from 
Pennsylvania to Ohio in 1792.

Charles Hugh Kerr was born in 1849 at Newport, Ohio, and died 
in 1911, at Parkersburg, West Virginia, having located in that
city in 1883.  He was one of the early oil men in West Virginia
oil territory and became widely known.  He married Miss Lillie
Atkinson, who still survives and resides at Parkersburg.  She
was born at Comeron, Ohio, a daughter of Isaac Atkinson, a
prominent business man for many years at Marietta, Ohio, and
largely interested in the oil industry even before the war
between the states.

Raymond E. Kerr attended public schools of Parkersburg, and
later attended West Virginia University, where he took a course
in civil engineering.  He has practically devoted himself to
this profession ever since, and during the greater part of his
professonal and business life has made his home at Morgantown.
Mr. Kerr's professional work was in assocication with the
Little Kanawha Syndicate at Parkersburg.  When the syndicate
built the Buckhannon & Northern Railroad, now the Monongahela,
Mr. Kerr was secured as assistant chief engineer, and the 
contract was most satisfactorily completed.  He later became
identified with the Morgantown & Wheeling Railroad.  This 
railway line, like manu others within the past few year, 
met with business difficulties and since 1918 Mr. Kerr
has been receiver of this property.  Aside form his profession
he is interested in a number of important business enterprises
at Morgantown.  He is vice president and treasurer of the
B. M. Chaplin Company, contractors and builders, which he
organized in 1914.  In 1913 he was one of the organizers of
the Monongahela Supply Company of Morgantown, and is present
secretary of this concern.  In addition he is unofficially
identified with a number of coal corporations and holds a
large amount of valuable property in the West Virginia coal
fields.  He has a wide acquaintance and is held in high
regard as a keen, able business man and thoroughly competent
in his profession.  He is a member of the American Society of
Civil Engineers. 

In 1910 Mr. Kerr married Miss Frances Tucker, who is a daughter
of Robert C. and Mary Frances (Smith) Tucker, of Parkersburg,
West Virginia, and they have one daughter, Alice, who was born
March 21, 1921.  Mrs. Kerr is a member of the Episcopal Church.  
The political field has never attracted Mr. Kerr, but his good
citizenship is unmistakable, and he is a valued member of the 
Morgantown Chamber of Commerce.  He belongs to the Rotary Club,
to Morgantown Lodge No. 411, Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, and still maintains membership interest in his college
fraternity, the Delta Tau Delta.


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