Barnes County has produced many prominent citizens, both state and national. There is little doubt but that the activities and scope of the work of Alma Kjelland Kerr surpasses that of almost any citizen one could name.
Born in Barnes County to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Kjelland, Alma early decided upon teaching as her profession. Finishing her training at Valley City Normal, she taught a rural school for two years, then served as principal of the Wing Consolidated School.
In 1918 she married Captain Homer Harrison Kerr. With a desire to aid in the war effort, she became the head of the Emergency Hospital at Lemmon, South Dakota. Upon the untimely death of her husband, she decided that she, too, must go overseas.
She became the director of the Near East Relief Program, concerned with the resettlement of Turks, Kurds, White Russians and Greeks during 1919-1922, with headquarters at Trebizond, Turkey.
In 1922 she was requested by the Syrian Government to take over the directorship of a large orphanage in Sidon, Syria, peopled by orphans of many languages and creeds. The need to communicate resulted in her learning French, Arabic, Turkish as well as her native Norwegian.
Her work in educating the orphans led to becoming director of the Central Teachers Training College for Women in Baghdad, Iraq, and an official in the Ministry of Education, appointed by her friend, King Feisal.
Accidentally wounded by gunfire in the Arabian desert, she recovered in London, England, and then studied law at Gunderson Law College, Helena, Montana, and Art and Design at the New York School of Art, Paris, France. In 1934 she received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Minnesota, with a Major in Journalism.
During the depression, Alma Kjelland Kerr served as Regional Director of Non-Engineering Projects for the Work Project Administration for a six state area.
Following this position, she served as a free-lance journalist and Red Cross worker in Chicago.
With the start of World War II, she worked as a director of Red Cross, establishing clubs and mobile units in New Delhi, Assem, Calcutta, Kunming and Chungking in the Indo-China Theater of War.
After the close of the war, she did political research with the American Attach’s office in Beirut, Lebanon, and organized the Self-Help Project for the Middle East at Merj Uyum, South Lebanon.
A desire to further her knowledge of the Far East led her to return to school, where she received a Master of Arts Degree from the American University at Washington, D.C. Following her graduation, she did research for the Department of Defense and served as a political analyst at the United Nations in New York. Her last program has been "MEET" (Middle East Exhibits and Training), a self-help project to set up exhibits, and merchandise the products and native handiworks of refugees.
Alma Kjelland Kerr has been the recipient of numerous awards and medals for her labors among the peoples of the Far East. To name a few: 14th Air Force Award, Near East Humanitarian Award, Syrian-Lebanese American Distinguished Service Award, Lebanese Award of Merit, Arab Students Award, American Red Cross Award for Services to the Armed Forces and the Award of Distinction, by the U.S. Army.
Alma Kjelland Kerr now resides in the Edgerton Memorial Hospital, Edgerton, Wisconsin. Barnes County is proud of this international ambassador of American Good Will and Aid to the underprivileged.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 122