Dr. Kerr was born and raised in Calgary and attended Queen Elizabeth High School but moved to Henry Wise Wood from where he graduated in 1970. He went on the University of Calgary and majored in Zoology. He was accepted into the University of Waterloo School of Optometry after 2 years of undergraduate university. He graduated from the U of W, School of Optometry in 1976 and entered private optometric practice with Dr. Austin Forsyth and Dr. Brent Beaton in Saskatoon.
His early years in practice were spent building a practice with a special interest in contact lenses and children's vision and its impact on learning. He spent several years on the Advisory Board of the Saskatchewan Association for children with Learning Disabilities and continue to have a keen interest in the area.
He was interested in service to his profession and was elected to the Council of the Saskatchewan Association of Optometrists in 1979. He served on council for 10 years and held every office available including President in 1976/77. During this time the council rewrote the entire Saskatchewan Optometry Act.
He was appointed as the Saskatchewan delegate to Canadian Association of Optometrists in 1990 and again went through every office available and in 1995/96 was the President of the Canadian Association of Optometrists. This was an incredibly busy time as he tried to balance the responsibilities of the national association with practice and family responsibilities. He traveled over 100 days the first year and continued to work a nearly full schedule at home. Fortunately, his children were able to travel with him some of the time and they saw much of Canada and made friends across the country during that time. He was a driving force behind the creation of a body called the Eye Health Council of Canada. It is a strategic alliance between optometry and industry and exists to promote eye health awareness to Canadians and can be seen bringing its messages to the public in most medias on a regular basis.
He has been on many advisory boards and has been involved in clinical research with a number of new silicone hydrogel contact lenses.
He was awarded the CAO “Presidents Award” and the University of Waterloo’s “Distinguished Alumni Award” in 2007. These were truly an honor for him as they are recognition by his peers of his efforts in his profession and the community.
He was a founding member of the Horizon Laser Vision Center and has been on its board of directors since 1996 and has been the President since 2009.
In 2008, Atrium Eyecare joined FYI Eyecare Services and Dr. Kerr served on its board of directors until 2012.
Dr. Kerr is married to Anita who owns “Pink Tree – the fitting Shop” in Saskatoon. He has two children; Dave is in Saskatoon and works in Sales and Leasing for ICR Commercial Leasing. Julia graduated with her education degree and is teaching Kindergarten at the Toronto French School.