Fergus Gordon Kerr

Fergus Gordon Thomson Kerr (16 July 1931 – 23 November 2025) was a Scottish Catholic priest of the English Dominican province. He published significantly on a wide range of subjects, but was famous particularly for his work on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Thomas Aquinas.

Biography Following his education at Banff Academy and his service in the RAF (1953–1955), Kerr entered the Order of Preachers in 1956. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1962. Kerr studied in Aberdeen, Paris, Munich, and Oxford. He was a student of Donald M. MacKinnon, John Holloway, and Cornelius Ernst. From 1966 to 1986, he taught philosophy and theology at the University of Oxford.

In service to the English Dominican province, Kerr was Prior at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford from 1969 to 1978. From 1992 to 1998, he served as Prior at Blackfriars, Edinburgh. In 1998, he returned to Blackfriars, Oxford, where he served as Regent until 2004. Kerr served as the inaugural Director of the Aquinas Institute, Blackfriars, Oxford and was the editor of New Blackfriars, the bimonthly journal of the English Dominicans (1995–2020).

At the time of his death, Kerr was affiliated with Blackfriars, Edinburgh. He held an honorary fellowship in the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh and had a role in the university's Catholic chaplaincy team.

A festschrift was prepared in Kerr's honor entitled Faithful Reading.

Kerr was awarded an Honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity by the University of Edinburgh in December 2019.

Kerr died on 23 November 2025, at the age of 94.