Catherine "Kay" Kerr (née Spaulding; 1911 – 2010) was a pioneer in

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad Philosophy of life, philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment (biophysical), environment, par ...

. She, along with friends

Sylvia McLaughlin Sylvia Cranmer McLaughlin (December 24, 1916 – January 19, 2016) was an American pioneer in environmentalism. She, along with Kay Kerr and Esther Gulick, founded the Save San Francisco Bay Association, which eventually became Save the Bay. E ...

and Esther Gulick, founded the Save San Francisco Bay Association in 1961 which eventually became

Save The Bay Save The Bay is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving San Francisco Bay and its related estuarine habitat areas. Founded by Catherine Kerr, Sylvia McLaughlin, and Esther Gulick in 1961, the organization grew into a body that not o ...

. The three friends also founded the

Bay Conservation and Development Commission A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

, the first coastal protection agency in America. Their efforts helped spark the

environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...

in the United States. Throughout her life, Kerr fought to protect the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, California, San Jose, and Oakland, Ca ...

from development and landfill and to restore wetlands and

estuarine An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environmen ...

habitat.

Personal life

Kay Kerr was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

and attended Stanford University, where she majored in journalism. At a peace conference in 1934 she met and later married

Clark Kerr Clark Kerr (May 17, 1911 – December 1, 2003) was an American professor of economics and academic administrator. He was the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, and twelfth president of the University of California. Bio ...

, who went on to become an economics professor and chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerr, Catherine 1911 births 2010 deaths American naturalists Activists from the San Francisco Bay Area American conservationists Stanford University alumni