A Biography Of Walter Craig Kerr

The life of Walter Craig Kerr, president of Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co written by Albert W. Smith and put out by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as part biography and part extend eulogy for a man held in high esteem by the engineering community in the United States. The book is divided into two sections: biographical in the first and the second where Walter C. Kerr's own thoughts are reprinted. It examines his ancestry, tracing his origins back to Tristam Coffin who settled in Nantucket. He attended Cornell in 1875 studying engineering and graduated in 1879 whereupon he was appointed as a faculty member of the school. He joined the Westinghouse Machine Company in 1882 and in 1884 formed together with Henry Herman Westinghouse and Lee Church the engineering firm of Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Co was organized to sell the Westinghouse high speed, single acting engines used in electrical generation made by Westinghouse Machine Compnay . Walter C. Kerr assumed the presidency of the company in 1886, a position he remained until his death. The Company took on the design and engineering of the Boston South Station. The Company expanded in other directions such as railroads and refrigeration. The book also examines his relationships with family, estimations of his character by his close friends and colleagues who knew him and even a brief section on poems he wrote. The second section of the book give reprints of letters and addresses to students by Walter C. Kerr which outline his own views on engineering, what makes a great engineer, and the role of the engineering firm in society. These addresses are:

Post Graduate Suggestions, Address to Sibley College of Engineering Cornell May 11, 1905

Knowledge and Action, Address to Staten Island Academy June 8, 1906

What Are You Going To Do? Address to Pomfret School June, 1907

The Next Step, Address to Senior Class of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn June 12, 1907

Engineering Personality and Organization, Address to Graduating Class of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute June, 1908

The Point of View, Address to Graduating Class of Stevens Institute of Technology & students of Sibley College Cornell