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Robert Kern, 65, a resident of Albuquerque, a professor of History at the University of New Mexico, died of cancer on Saturday, April 15, 2000. He had taught at UNM for over thirty years. Kern, born in St. Louis, MO, spent some of his childhood living in Europe with his mother, an operatic singer and music teacher. He graduated with a B.A. from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH, and after a year in law school obtained a M.A. and Ph.D in history from the University of Chicago, where he studied under William Hardy McNeil and Bernardo Blanco Gonzalez. After a postdoctoral scholarship to the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, he taught at the University of California, Riverside, and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, before coming to UNM in 1968. While at the university, he served for more than a decade on the Faculty Senate and as chair of the Undergraduate Academic Affairs Committee, as well as spending eight years as president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors. On the national level, he was a founding member and former office-holder of the Society of Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies and of the Southwestern Labor Studies Association. Of Kern's ten books, his dissertation provided the material for two of the earliest, both of which dealt with the problems connected with the modernization of political structures in the Spanish-speaking world. He later created and co-edited The Historical Dictionary of Modern Spanish History and The Regions of Spain: A Historical and Cultural Guide. His study of the Spanish Civil War, Red Years/Black Years: A Political History of the Spanish Anarchists, 1909-1937, was particularly well known. In addition, Kern wrote about New Mexico, and his Labor History of New Mexico was published by the UNM Press. He co-edited with Jane Slaughter one of the first collections to deal with women in radical politics, European Women on the Left. He was preceded in death by his wife, Elizabeth Kern. Mr. Kern is survived by his sons, Jonathan of Studio City, CA and Joshua and his wife, Katie of Denver; and by his wife of the past eleven years, Susan Brake. Adios Jon, Josh, and Susie, all of whom he loved very much, because he wrote this obit, wanting to write and edit right down to the final moment of life. Cremation has taken place and memorial services to celebrate his life and work will be held on Friday, April 21st, 2:30 p.m., in the Alumni Chapel at the University of New Mexico. In lieu of flowers, Professor Kern requested donation be made to the University of New Mexico Bands, Dept. of Music, University Hill NE, 87131. A musical composition will be commissioned in his memory. French Mortuary, 1111 University Blvd. NE.
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