The Rev. Canon Thomas Albert Kerr, Jr.

The Rev. Canon Thomas Albert Kerr, Jr. of Wilmington died in his sleep on December 19, 2018 at his home following a brave 13-year struggle with multiple myeloma.

Tom was born in 1938 in New York City to Thomas A. and Jean Lewis Kerr and spent most of his youth in Jamesburg, New Jersey, with his brothers Andrew and Jay and sister Mary Ellen. He earned his A.B. from Princeton University in 1959, then attended the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church, graduating in 1962. In 1963 he met Janet Blake Spence of Wilton, Connecticut, the roommate of his sister Mary Ellen at Beaver College in Glenside, Pennsylvania. He proposed on their first date and in 1965 the two were married.

Following his ordination as priest, Tom served as Rector of several churches within the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey, as well as the Episcopal Chaplain of Rutgers University. He moved to Wilmington, Delaware with his family in 1985, where he became Canon at the Cathedral Church of St. John, then Rector of Immanuel Church, Highlands from 1995-2002. He was Deployment Officer in the Diocese of New Jersey from 2002-2006, when he retired following his diagnosis with multiple myeloma.

Tom had a strong sense of right and wrong and deep empathy, which drove him to a life of fighting for justice and serving those in need. He was an advocate for racial justice during the Civil Rights Era and afterward, against poverty, and for the rights of women and sexual minorities before these views were acceptable in the mainstream. He comforted countless people through their darkest times. He will be remembered as a kind, gentle and loving person who has left the world a better place for his presence.

Tom, a loving husband and father, is survived by his wife Janet, his children Sarah, Matthew and Timothy, and four precocious granddaughters.

A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Monday January 21, 2019 at Immanuel Church, Highlands, 2400 W. 17th Street, Wilmington, DE 19806.

Donations may be made to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation or to Immanuel Church, Highlands.