Ian Kerr, retired PR counselor and president emeritus of the Westchester/Fairfield Connecticut chapter of the Public Relations Society of America, passed away on September 16. He was 90.
 Ian Kerr |
Born in 1925 in London, the public relations practitioner led a career that spanned six decades. A journalism student at London University, Kerr served in the British Army’s Home Guard during World War II and later joined the Royal Air Force. His journalism career began after the war, when he began writing for London-based daily newspapers, trade publications and various news agencies.
Kerr emigrated to the U.S. in 1952 and joined the PR department of British state-owned airline British Overseas Airways Corporation. In 1977 he founded his own New York-based PR agency, Kerr Kelly Thompson, which eventually relocated to Greenwich, CT. That agency, which represented clients such as Rolls-Royce, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance, Ernst & Young, Rolling Rock Beer, Singer Sewing Machines and the British Automobile Manufacturers Association, later merged with national advertising and PR agency Earle Palmer Brown.
The executive later served as chairman of Stamford, CT-based FleishmanHillard affiliate Emmanuel Kerr Kilsby, a PR and institutional advertising firm that specialized in corporate and financial communications. That agency, which was founded in 1985, was acquired by Creative Partners in 2004.
Kerr was twice president of the Fairfield County Public Relations Association and PRSA’s Fairfield/Westchester chapter. He was also president of the Connecticut Press Club and a board member of the Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, as well as a member of the Coastal Fairfield County Tourist Board, the Overseas Press Club, the Foreign Press Association and the Association of Women in Radio and Television.
He was a two-time winner of the PRSA’s prestigious Silver Anvil award and was also recipient of a Matrix prize from the Women in Communications’ Connecticut chapter. The Fairfield County Public Relations Association recognized Kerr's career with a Charter Oak Award “for integrity, fortitude and perseverance in communications.”
Kerr resided in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Funeral services will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 24 at the Christ Church, 254 E. Putnam Ave., in Greenwich.
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