Economics, foreign aid expert spent 50 years with U.S. government
Squirrel Hill native Eugene S. Kerber launched a distinguished five-decade government career in Washington, D.C., two days after he was awarded degrees in economics and math from the University of Pittsburgh.
He returned to Pittsburgh in 1994 and lived in Dithridge Towers, Oakland, until he moved to his daughter’s home in Fox Chapel. He was 97 when he died there on Dec. 22, 2017, from natural causes.
“Our family decision to have him come to live with us during the last four years of his life was one of the best decisions we have ever made,” said his daughter, Amy Kerber-Brancati. “It allowed us to enjoy some beautiful time together and learn about what family, love and how to live really mean.”
Mr. Kerber learned the value of education and hard work as a child. His parents, Isidore and Stella Kerber, were immigrants of Austria and Russia. His father was a retail manager who extended credit to families to buy school clothing during the Great Depression and proved skeptics wrong when all debts were repaid.
Mr. Kerber served at the State, Treasury and Commerce departments, as well as with the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. He was considered an expert on balance of payments and foreign aid, Ms. Kerber-Brancati said. He wrote sections on economics for the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Book of the Year from 1956-1964.
During that time, the family lived in the historic district of Hollin Hills in Alexandria, Va., home to a creative and influential mix of government employees, artists and musicians such as Roberta Flack.
“He took great pride and happiness living there,” Ms. Kerber-Brancati said, and Norma Kerber Floyd, his former spouse, still lives in the Hollin Hills home.
Mr. Kerber enjoyed arts and culture. He frequented the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra performances and theater in Pittsburgh.
He was an avid reader, his daughter said, digesting three daily newspapers — including their crossword puzzles — and numerous magazines including his favorites The New Yorker and The Economist.
Lifetime friend Carmen Nakassis, of Gaithersburg, Md., said “He had a prodigious memory and an interest in recapturing details. I remember giving him [David] McCullough’s biography of Harry Truman for his birthday. He finished this lengthy book in two days, and when I asked him how he liked it, he said, ‘I found three mistakes!’ I’m sure he was right.”
Mr. Kerber’s philanthropic endeavors ranged from being a charter donor to National Jewish Health, where he helped to start the charitable gift program, to laying the groundwork for the Miss Mitchell Society, a charitable gift program, at the Winchester Thurston School, where his grandson was a student.
He was a lifetime donor to Pitt, and his 97th birthday on Dec. 6 had a school theme. He sang “Hail to Pitt” to his daughters as a lullaby, Ms. Kerber-Brancati said.
Michael Sciarretti, a longtime Pittsburgh friend, said Mr. Kerber had a “voracious appetite to learn and master.”
A “historian with a photographic memory and amazing retention, Eugene was a challenging and generous conversationalist. Add to that his dedication to his family and friends, the Arts and designing a philanthropic legacy, and you will start to get a small picture of Eugene’s many gifts. All who knew him would say, he was an unassuming genius, an intellectual pioneer and nobleman from a bygone era. I am grateful to have known him in my lifetime.”
In addition to Ms. KerberBrancati, Mr. Kerber is survived by son-in-law Joseph J. Brancati of Fox Chapel; daughter Susan Kerber Price of Virginia and four grandchildren.
Services and internment were private and arranged by the Ralph Schugar Chapel, Shadyside. A memorial service is being planned for a future date.