Veteran Newspaperman publishes Memoirs

Dick Kerr, longtime owner and publisher of the Leelanau Enterprise, was known for this fiery editorials, which often targeted public officials. Kerr has turned his recollections and stories into a book, “Of Cabbages and Kings.”

He transformed a traditional but rather sleepy weekly newspaper into a true source of local news, reports theRecord Eagle in a February 27 article.

Readers loved it. Most local officials didn’t mind the scrutiny, and even appreciated the coverage.
But some hated it, particularly if they were on the wrong end of one of Kerr’s sharp edits. A handful of Leelanau powerbrokers complained long and loud about Kerr and the Enterprise. They verbally attacked newspaper staffers in public settings, pulled advertising, and urged others to do the same. It wasn’t unlike what the Record-Eagle went through a few years ago when a Grand Traverse County string-puller campaigned against us to our then-corporate board, an effort designed to scare the paper away from doing its job.

Another article in the Grand Traverse Insider says about Of Cabbages and Kings,”

Kerr’s memoir is filled with the excitement of meeting important personages and celebrities of the day, both in Leelanau County and in his two decades as a journalist in the Ypsilanti area. “Being in on” area happenings, and reporting on the events and people that shaped the character of the areas he served have made for an exciting career. But most of all, Kerr cites his having made friends with “many, many fine, great people” as that which has brought him the most satisfaction.

Copies of Dick Kerr’s memoir, “Of Cabbages and Kings,” are available for purchase at The Business Helper and Known Books in Suttons Bay, Leelanau Books in Leland, and the Cottage Book Shop in Glen Arbor.

Photo credit: Dick Kerr by Kristine Morris of the Grand Traverse Insider