Longtime Oklahoma arts, nature supporter William 'Bill' Kerr dies at age 85

Oklahomans who enjoy paintings, sculptures or prairie landscapes recently lost a major force whose made those opportunities possible.

William "Bill" Kerr, the youngest son of former Oklahoma Gov. and U.S. Sen. Robert S. Kerr, died in Oklahoma City on July 4. Kerr was 85 years old.

Bill Kerr took an interest in improving opportunities for Oklahomans and people across the nation to enjoy scenic vistas and art.

Kerr's interest in nature came from his love of natural habitats developed as a child on annual outings he took with his father and family to Minnesota each summer.

As vice chairman of the board of directors for Oklahoma's chapter of the Nature Conservancy, he helped establish the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Osage County near Pawhuska. Today, the Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve covers 39,650 acres, supports more than 2,500 head of bison and is the largest protected piece of tallgrass prairie left on earth, its website states.

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His love for art was equally as strong, as he once demonstrated by financially underwriting a drive to create and hang a painting of John Hope Franklin, an Oklahoman historian born in 1915 in Rentiesville, in Oklahoma's state Capitol.

Franklin, an author best known for his work "From Slavery to Freedom," served as a president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin's portrait hangs near the Governor's Office on the Capitol's second floor.

Kerr also established an internationally renowned art museum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, sparked by an appreciation for art he developed when his wife, Joffa, herself an artist, presented him with a painting of a sunfish when he graduated law school.

Today, the National Museum of Wildlife Art holds more than 5,000 works of wild animals from around the world, featuring prominent artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Robert Kuhn, John James Audubon and Carl Rungius.

Kerr organized his efforts to support those endeavors and others when he and his family agreed to divide the $70 million Kerr Foundation (backed mostly by Kerr McGee stock) into four separate institutions in 1985.

At the time, the family said the change enabled Bill and each of his three siblings (Robert Samuel Kerr Jr., Breene Kerr and Kay Kerr Clark) to pursue philanthropic ventures reflecting their unique interests and personalities.

Bill Kerr took control of the Robert S. and Grayce B. Kerr Foundation, which held $17.5 million in assets including various works of art worth an estimated $2 million.

He had the art restored and moved to a main street space he rented in Wyoming so it could be displayed. Later, it was moved into a permanent structure built for the museum on a slope overlooking the community.

In recognition of Kerr’s accomplishments, the museum's board named him chairman emeritus in 2008, a title he held until he died.

“Nature is as fragile as it is fierce. Our institution holds and cares for some of humankind’s most thoughtful and spirited portrayals of the natural world as we have known it," Kerr said in a speech he gave celebrating the museum's 25th anniversary in 2012. "That is a legacy we have the opportunity to embellish and preserve.”

An obituary for Kerr published on the museum's website said he was survived by his daughters, Kavar and Mara; god-daughter Karla Keller; grandchildren Ayla, Graycen and Whitney Mashburn; and great-granddaughters Tyler Grayce, Caroline Blake and Aubrey Kate Mashburn.

The family requested memorial gifts in his memory be made to the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: William Kerr, renowned Oklahoma artist and nature supporter, dies