Kerr, Tom

Tom Kerr, CWO, USMC Retired

Tom assumed duties as USMCCCA Treasurer at the 2005 conference in Reno. He has been a CC since 1968 when he joined the Los Angeles Chapter and served as a director. Three years later, he was a founding member and the first president of the William T. Perkins Chapter at Camp Lejeune.

After retiring from the Marine Corps in 1973, Tom joined the staff of the Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal. He affiliated with the New Orleans Chapter, and assisted with the National Conference there in 1983, where he was elected to the national board of directors. He is a charter member of the Florida Chapter.

Tom enlisted in the Marine Corps in August 1953 and was an artillery repairman and ammo humper the first six years of his career.  He was selected for the Navy journalism school at Great Lakes in 1959 and served the next 14 years as a writer, editor, PANCO and public affairs officer.  Tom edited the Windsock at Cherry Point, was officer-in-charge of the Prospector at Barstow and was operations chief at the Camp Lejeune JPAO where he supervised editing and production of the Globe. During this assignment the Globe received the top Thomas Jefferson award for Marine Corps base newspapers in 1971 and 1972 and took top honors in the Armed Forces base newspaper competition in 1972.

Duty stations and deployments included Paris Island; Camp Lejeune (twice);  Vieques, Puerto Rico; Korea; Camp Pendleton; I&I duty in Ft, Worth, Tex.; JO School at Great Lakes (twice); DINFOS, Ft. Benjamin Harrison (twice); MARTCOM at NAS Glenview; Cherry Point; PANCO at the Birmingham Recruiting Station; Barstow; and Da Nang and Chu Lai in Vietnam.

Tom’s civilian newspaper positions include managing editor of the Pensacola News-Journal from 1979 to 1985; executive editor of the Fremont (Ohio) News-Messenger and Port Clinton News Herald from 1987 to 1993. In between editing positions, Tom spent time at USA Today and enjoyed a year of travel writing.

After retiring from the Gannett Company in 1993, Tom and his wife Sheila settled in Niceville, Fla.  Tom is currently enjoying a third career as a travel agent.

Sheila and Tom raised four children: Marine Cpl. Tom Kerr Jr. (deceased); Karen Sue Bruno, a travel agent in Pensacola; Jacquline Boehm, a para legal who attended the New Orleans CC conference and was a shipmate on the 2008 CC group cruise; Charlie Kerr, Government Compliance Officer for KBR (formerly Halliburton) whose job is to justify military war support charges to federal and Congressional auditors.

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