Background
Otto Kerner Jr. was born on August 15, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois, United States, the son of Rose Barbara Chmelik and Otto Kerner, an attorney and federal appellate judge. He was raised in the wealthy Chicago suburb of River Forest.
(Excerpt from Water for Illinois, a Plan for Action: March...)
Excerpt from Water for Illinois, a Plan for Action: March 1967 Water Resources of Illinois The Economy of Illinois Population Of Illinois Conclusions and Recommendations Acknowledgments and Selected References. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from Report of the Illinois Mississippi Canal and...)
Excerpt from Report of the Illinois Mississippi Canal and Sinnissippi Lake Commission to His Excellency Otto Kerner Governor of the State of Illinois and Members of the Seventy-Second General Assembly: June 1, 1961 Northern Illinois, the destined center of a super-city, having no national park or national forests and a limited acreage in state parks, is destined to feel the brunt of this future demand for recreational space. By 1980, the Greater Chicago Region is expected to have a population of 10 million people needing a minimum of additional acres of land in large open space. The introduction of the interstate system will funnel a greater number of tourists through the region putting new demands on recreational lands. The Canal, being located at the intersection of Route 78 (south) and 80 (east-west) is well placed to fill this potential demand. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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the complete report to the united states president of a special commission assigned to delve into the causes of racial unrest and violence in this country.
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(Excerpt from Proceedings of the Board of Governors of Sta...)
Excerpt from Proceedings of the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities of the State of Illinois: July 1, 1966-June 30, 1967 Assistant Director of Finance Springfield Mr. Ray Page Superintendent of Public Instruction Springfield. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(Excerpt from Proceedings of the Teachers College Board of...)
Excerpt from Proceedings of the Teachers College Board of the State of Illinois: July 1, 1961-June 30, 1962 Julius E. Bohn, employed as Substitute Instructor and Supervisory Teacher of the Eighth Grade for next year, died on July 4, 1961. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Otto Kerner Jr. was born on August 15, 1908 in Chicago, Illinois, United States, the son of Rose Barbara Chmelik and Otto Kerner, an attorney and federal appellate judge. He was raised in the wealthy Chicago suburb of River Forest.
Kerner graduated from the prestigious Chicago Latin School in 1926 and went on to earn his Bachelor of Arts degree at Brown University in 1930. After spending the 1930-1931 academic year at Trinity College, Cambridge University, he earned his Juris Doctor degree at Northwestern University Law School in 1934.
In 1934, Kerner joined the law firm of Cooke, Sullivan, and Ricks, where he served for one year as an associate. In 1935 he became a partner in his father's firm, Kerner, Jaros, and Tittle, where he worked chiefly with major corporate clients. His association with the firm lasted until 1947 but was interrupted for five years by military service during World War II. Having joined the elite Black Horse Troop of the Illinois National Guard in 1934, Kerner was called to active duty as a captain with the Thirty-third Infantry Division of the United States Army in March 1941. A year later he was transferred as a major to the Ninth Infantry Division. After a brief stint at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Kerner was promoted to lieutenant colonel and reassigned to the Thirty-second Infantry Division, with which he served in the Philippines and Japan from July to December 1945. He was discharged from active duty in March 1946, but he remained in the National Guard until 1951, when he retired as a major general.
In 1947, Kerner, already a rising star in the Cook County Democratic party, was appointed United States attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. After seven years in that position, in 1954 he was tapped by the Democratic political machine to run for Cook County judge. His election put him in charge of the largest administrative court in the nation. Reelected in 1958, Kerner resigned from his county judgeship in 1960 to run for governor. As the candidate endorsed by the Democratic state convention, he defeated two rivals in the party primary and went on to swamp incumbent Republican governor William G. Stratton in November. His half-million vote victory far exceeded the statewide victory margins of both Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy and popular Democratic senator Paul H. Douglas, establishing him instantly as a major figure in the national party. In 1964 he was reelected by a smaller, but still substantial margin (2, 418, 394 to 2, 239, 095 for businessman--and later senator--Charles Percy).
As governor, Kerner faced Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature but nevertheless managed to win approval of his program to improve Illinois state finances, including increases in both the state sales tax and the corporate tax rate. Aided by the general economic prosperity of the early 1960's, the state's financial position improved, benefiting Kerner politically. Throughout his two terms, Kerner maintained good relations with the Cook County machine, especially its powerful leader, Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. But the educated and urbane governor never seemed to fit comfortably with the machine that had launched his career; indeed, his aloof, almost aristocratic, bearing and his reputation for personal integrity were useful to Daley and his colleagues in countering popular stereotypes of them and their work.
erner's second term as governor coincided with Lyndon Johnson's presidency and was dominated by the same forces. In 1965, 1966, and 1967, he was forced to mobilize the National Guard in order to quell race-related urban violence (in Chicago in 1965 and 1966, and Cairo in 1967). Kerner's decisive actions in these instances and his long association with the National Guard, coupled with his record as a sincere supporter of civil rights, made him an ideal choice for Johnson, in the wake of rioting in July 1967, to head the President's National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. This eleven-member commission included leading figures from both houses of Congress, Roy Wilkins of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and other private-sector representatives. In March 1968, in the Kerner Report, the commission captured headlines by pronouncing that the United States was "moving toward two societies, one black and one white--separate and unequal. " The report, which called for an ambitious agenda of reforms in housing, law enforcement, employment, and welfare, was greeted enthusiastically by civil rights leaders but lukewarmly by President Johnson, who stated that the billions of dollars needed for such a program would not likely be forthcoming. No major legislation resulted from the commission's report. Two months before the Kerner Report was released, Kerner had shocked the leaders of both parties in Illinois by announcing that, for personal reasons he would not run for a third term as governor. Whether by prearrangement or not, within a week of the report's issuance, President Johnson nominated him to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (the same court on which his father had served). Despite the public opposition of South Carolina Republican senator Strom Thurmond, who announced that he was protesting the spirit of the Kerner Report rather than Kerner's specific qualifications as a jurist, he was confirmed by the Senate on a voice vote.
In May 1968 he resigned as governor to assume his seat on the bench. To all outward appearances, Kerner continued to be a model public servant as a circuit court judge. His name had never been linked with corruption, even by his political enemies, and he seemed to have reached the position to which he had always aspired. ("It is my life, " he later said of the judgeship. ) In mid-December 1971, however, a federal grand jury dropped the bombshell that he was among several former Illinois public officials implicated in illicit stock deals that had been uncovered by a two-and-a-half-year federal investigation into the activities of Illinois horse racing interests. Indicted on nineteen counts of conspiracy, income tax evasion, mail fraud, and lying to a grand jury, Kerner asserted his innocence but asked to be relieved of his duties as judge pending final resolution of the charges; he continued to receive his $42, 500 annual salary. The indictment charged that Kerner (along with his friend, one-time state revenue director Theodore Isaacs) had, as a result of an agreement reached in 1962, purchased $356, 000 worth of racing stock in 1966 for only $70, 158 (the 1962 price of the stock), then had immediately sold the stock at its face value, reaping a large profit. At the time the initial stock agreement had been made, it was alleged, Kerner had used his influence as governor to benefit the racing officials from whom he purchased the stock; then, after selling the bargain stock, he had falsified his income tax records by dating the date of purchase so that he could record the profits as long-term capital gains and thereby pay a much lower tax rate than he would have had to pay if listing them as regular income. It was further charged that during investigations of the issue by the Internal Revenue Service, Kerner had lied about one of the entries on his 1967 tax return.
On February 19, 1973, following a dramatic thirty-five day trial, Kerner was convicted on seventeen counts--the first sitting federal appeals court judge to be found guilty of a felony. Remaining dignified and civil in this time of crisis, and believing himself the victim of a political vendetta by Republicans (his prosecutor was a future Republican governor of Illinois, James Thompson), Kerner announced immediately after his conviction that he would never give up the battle for vindication. The matter, he contended, was "more important than life itself, because it involves my reputation and honor, which are dearer than life itself. "
In April 1973, Judge Robert Taylor sentenced him to three years in prison and a fine of $50, 000 (terms much lighter than the maximum sentence of eighty-three years in prison and $93, 000 in fines). Kerner's appeal was turned down by a Special Court of Appeals in October 1973, and eight months later his last hope for exoneration expired, when the Supreme Court refused to hear the case. On July 29, 1974, with impeachment the only other option, he finally resigned from the bench and began his prison term at the minimum-security Federal Correctional Facility in Lexington, Kentucky. The final years of Kerner's life were extremely difficult. In May 1974 as he was waiting to hear the fate of his appeal to the Supreme Court, he suffered a heart attack. Then, just seven months after his incarceration, he was diagnosed as having advanced lung cancer.
On March 6, 1975, he was released from prison to undergo surgery. With a brief respite from illness, Kerner plunged energetically into the cause of prison reform, speaking widely and serving as a consultant to Lewis University's Special Services Center, which was involved in motivational work with prison inmates. Of particular concern to him was the callous handling of prisoners by federal prison administrators. Kerner's financial troubles continued to pile up during 1975, as the tax court denied his earlier claim of a $21, 658 deduction for donating his personal papers to the Illinois State Historical Library. In the spring of 1976, his health failed again--this time permanently. After a brief period of hospitalization during which Illinois's two United States senators tried hard, but without success, to persuade President Gerald Ford to grant him a presidential pardon, Kerner died in Chicago.
For all the pain of his felony conviction and removal from the federal bench he so loved, Kerner enjoyed the compensation of substantial public support and goodwill until the end of his life. After his release from prison he was formally honored for his good works by both the Chicago branch of the NAACP and the Illinois Academy of Criminology. Though he never succeeded in disproving the charges on which he was convicted, his many years of effective public service, his unwavering dignity and composure, and especially his humanitarian contributions as an advocate of prison reform in the last year of his life combined to make him seem respectable despite what he referred to as his "indiscretion" while governor.
(Excerpt from Report of the Illinois Mississippi Canal and...)
(Excerpt from Water for Illinois, a Plan for Action: March...)
(Excerpt from Proceedings of the Board of Governors of Sta...)
(the complete report to the united states president of a s...)
(Excerpt from Proceedings of the Teachers College Board of...)
Otto Kerner Jr. was a member of the Democratic Party. He advocated for reforming adoption laws and procedures.
On October 20, 1934, Kerner married Helena Cermak Kenlay, daughter of former Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who had been killed in Miami in March 1933 by an assassin's bullet intended for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kerner and his wife had no children, but her daughter from a previous marriage, Mary, had a son and a daughter. When Mary was killed in an automobile accident in 1954, the Kerners adopted her two young children as their own. His wife died in 1973.