Remembering James S. Kerr,
Founder of the American Basic Science Club
James S. Kerr, the founder of American
Basic Science Club, was a Texas amateur scientist who
influenced many thousands of young people across the United
States to pursue careers in science and engineering through
his popular line of science kits. The Citizen Scientist
is grateful to The San Antonio Express-News for
permission to reproduce its 24 September 2006 obituary
of James S. Kerr. We are also grateful to Sam
Cancilla of Sams
Toybox, who kindly allowed us to reproduce two photographs
of an American Basic Science Club kit from his web site.
Editor.
James S.
Kerr, 97, Made Kits For Young Einsteins
Carmina Danini
San Antonio Express-News Staff
James S. Kerr, whose American Basic Science
Club kits fired up kids' interest in chemistry, physics
and even nuclear physics and steered them toward careers
in science and engineering, has died at 97.
He died Tuesday after a stroke a few
days earlier.
Through his kits, advertised in comic
books and other magazines, students could learn about
electronics, optics, photography, computers, light and
weather.
Each kit, touted in ads as a "low-cost introduction
to the wonderful world of science," cost $3.45.
The atomic energy lab, which came out
in 1960, featured three experimental setups and two radioactive
sources.
Youngsters who bought the weather station
kit found a cloud chart and forecasting manual, a remote
reading wind vane and anemometer, a rain gauge and barometer.
Sold separately were manuals that taught
how to earn a ham license or learn about radio-TV servicing.
"It was an apprenticeship by mail,"
said Dr. Barry Ungerleider, a clinical researcher working
on pain relieving laser therapy in Austin.
"Jimmy put science in my hands when
I was just a kid, and from there I became a scientist,"
said Ungerleider, a member of the club from 1957 to 1959.
"And I wasn't the only one; I'm sure thousands of
others became scientists because of him."
The amazing thing is that Kerr was not
a scientist. He left college after two years, built levees
on the Mississippi River and sold appliances before World
War II.
After serving in North Africa and Italy, he opened the
James Kerr Co., an appliance store, in the 1800 block
of Broadway.
In 1956, the year he closed the store,
Kerr founded the American Basic Science Club.
"I had been taking electronics study
courses and reading, and I got to thinking about teaching
kids to build simple things," Kerr told San Antonio
Express-News Metro columnist Carlos Guerra last year
in the only interview he ever gave.
"The idea was to do experiments
with each part as they went along. It wasn't to hook A
to B and B to C and it works," Kerr added. "You
got a capacitor and did experiments with it so you knew
what it did; same with resistors and everything else.
It was eight kits, and the first four were electronics."
Niece Genevieve Kerr said Kerr's wife,
Rosemary, helped him put the kits together.
"Together, they wrote and edited
the instruction booklets until they were exactly right,"
Genevieve Kerr said.
Test ads produced less than 60 replies.
But a 1957 ad in Boys' Life magazine produced spectacular
results, with students — and teachers — signing
up for the kits.
Kerr operated the company for nearly
30 years. Later, he built a large optical illusion chamber
he retooled and installed for display in Dallas' "The
Science Place" museum. The museum is now called the
Museum of Nature & Science.
Genevieve Kerr said that after her uncle's
retirement, he published "Cosmic Doodles."
"It illustrated and described a
unique, easy method of drawing intricate, beautiful, fascinating
and mathematically precise geometric patterns," she
said. 
James Storm Kerr
Born: July 28, 1909, in Brookhaven, Miss.
Died: Sept. 19, 2006, in San Antonio
Survived by: His wife of 58 years, Rosemary Luckett Kerr;
a daughter, Katharine Luckett Kerr of San Antonio; a son,
James Daugherty Kerr III of Austin; and two granddaughters,
Dylan Kerr Davies of Santa Fe, N.M., and Christina Evelyn
Kerr of Austin.
Service: Memorial service Friday at 3 p.m. at the Alamo
Heights Presbyterian Church at 6201 Broadway.
Copyright 2006 by The San Antonio Express-News.
Reprinted with permission.
