Michael J. Kerlin, Taught Philosophy
at La Salle University for 40 Years

Michael J. Kerlin, Ph.D., who taught Philosophy for 40 years at La Salle University, died November 23 after a long bout with Leukemia. He was 71. 

He had a wide range of interests, and earned advanced several degrees to bolster his teaching. At 52, he earned an MBA from La Salle in 1988 and subsequently taught business ethics.  

“He felt he should study what the business students were studying if he was going to teach ethics to them,” said Marc Moreau, Ph.D., current chair of La Salle’s philosophy Department.  

Kerlin was chair of the department for 28 years. "Mike Kerlin's longevity as chair is testimony to the good will and respect he generated among his colleagues,” said Moreau. “He was always fair-minded, and he was a peacemaker. Across his tenure as chair of the Philosophy Department, Mike Kerlin oversaw its transformation from a neo-Thomist workshop into a more diverse and more politically engaged department, one that could and did address the isms of the day --including communism, feminism, and post-modernism -- while tapping its roots in the Catholic intellectual tradition."

In 1986, Kerlin received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.  

For his dedication to La Salle and its heritage, Kerlin received the 2006 Distinguished Lasallian Educator Award from the University, given to a person who “exhibits in their daily lives an understanding of and a commitment to Lasallian priorities and traditions.” 

Brother Michael J. McGinniss, F.S.C., Ph.D., President of La Salle University, who was a student of Kerlin at La Salle, presented him with the award.  

“I know first-hand why he was selected for this award.  I profited from his knowledge of subject matter, from the contagious enthusiasm he brought to his teaching, and from the friendship he naturally and unfailingly extended to his students,” said McGinniss. 

In response, Kerlin said, “I love this place so much, I’m going to stay around for as long as I can.” 

Growing up in a row house in West Philadelphia, Kerlin was taught by the Christian Brothers, a teaching order of the Catholic Church, at Philadelphia’s West Catholic High School. He then joined the Christian Brothers, and earned a bachelor’s degree in English Education and master’s in religion at La Salle in 1957 and 1958 respectively. Kerlin taught at Denis J. O’Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia for four years. 

He then pursued a Ph.D. in Religion from Gregorian University in Rome, which is affiliated with the Vatican. Kerlin joined the La Salle faculty as a philosophy professor in 1966. Kerlin left the order in 1970.

He earned a second doctorate, this one in philosophy, from Temple University in 1974. That’s where he met Moreau, who Kerlin later hired to be an adjunct for the La Salle Philosophy Department (and later joined the faculty full-time).  

"As a scholar, Kerlin was drawn to unpopular thinkers, and he studied them for nuggets of truth that more popular thinkers were missing,” said Moreau. “When I first met him in 1972, in this spirit he was in this spirit reading the works of Marx and Engels, for which purpose he had purchased a complete edition of their works in German!   Since the Cold War was then going strong, their communist writings were often denounced in America, but rarely read. Thinking to prepare his students for the world they would face, Kerlin made sure that they studied the philosophy of Marx and Engels and reached a fair understanding of it." 

He is survived by his wife, Mary Anne, a daughter, Christine M. Nasser-Ghodsi, a son, Michael D. Kerlin, one grandchild, and two sisters. Funeral Mass will be Thursday, Nov. 29 at 8 p.m. at St. Philip Neri Church, 437 Ridge Pike, Lafayette Hill, Pa., Visitation from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Internment will be at Calvary Cemetery. In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the La Salle University Philosophy Dept., 1900 W. Olney Ave., Phila. PA  19141, c/o Marc Moreau.