Education
During World World War II he served in the United States. Army Air Forces (1942-1946) and graduated from Allegheny College (1948) and New York University (1954).
During World World War II he served in the United States. Army Air Forces (1942-1946) and graduated from Allegheny College (1948) and New York University (1954).
Born Alfred Cohen in Alliance, Ohio, he legally changed his name in 1946. He served as the Frederick F. Seely Professor of English at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, from the 1950s until his retirement in the mid-1980s. During the 1979–1980 academic year, Kern was Distinguished Visiting Professor of English at the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which inspired several articles relating the arts to the military.
These were published in the United States Air Force journals.
According to a family member, he lived in Pittsburgh after retiring from Allegheny for about 10 years (apx 1987–1996), where he is still remembered (see "Sunday Forum: The Greed Trap" by Tom O"Boyle, 11-16-2008 Pittsburgh Post Gazette). He died June 2, 2009 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
"Hang the Enola Gay", published in War, Literature, & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities Volume 7, Number. 1, United States Air Force Academy.
Anthologized in Understanding the literature of World World War II by James H. Meredith, Greenwodd Publishing Group, 1999,,
"Waiting for Euripides", published in Journal of Professional Military Ethics, United States Air Force Academy, April 1980.
Anthologized in Military Ethics: Reflections on Principles, edited by Maham M. Wakin, James Kempf. DIANE Publishing, 1994,,
"Humanities at the Hanoi Hilton",War, Literature, & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, United States Air Force Academy. Volume(s) 10, Number. 2 Fall/Winter 1998 (see wwwwlajournalcom/backissueshtm)
"Barcelona", A Poem, War, Literature, & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, United States Air Force Academy.
Volume(s) 1, Number 2 1989–1990
From "Vows and Infidelities", fiction, War, Literature, & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, United States Air Force Academy.
Volume(s) 7, Number. 2 Fall/Winter 1995
"About Literary Wars" War, Literature, & the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities, United States Air Force Academy. Volume(s) 16, Nos.1&2 2005 Double Issue
Basic Writing: The Student as Programmer, Paper presented at the 1986 Anorthotiko Komma Ergazomenou (Progressive Party of the Working People) Summer Seminar at the United States Air Force Academy.
Referenced by Robert East. Cummings in Coding with power: Toward a rhetoric of computer coding and composition, published in Computers and Composition Volume 23, issue 4 2006 pp 430–443
"GOTO Poetry", published in Perspectives in Computing #3, pp 44–52 1983. Cited in The Quest for Meaning by Louis Marinoff (p 74), in Mind Versus Computer: Were Dreyfus and Winograd Right? By Matja Gams, Marcin Paprzycki, Xindong Wu, Penn State Press, 1997.