Barbara Kerr

The article below is about a solar cooking promoter who is now deceased. This information is maintained here as a tribute to the important work done by Barbara Kerr.

Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole — Barbara Kerr (left) with Sherry Cole

Barbara Kerr was one of the primary founders of the current solar cooking movement. In the early 1970s she and her friend Sherry Cole designed a cardboard solar box cooker and an early solar wall oven. She later helped develop a panel-type solar cooker known as the CooKit. Barbara was a founding board member of Solar Cookers International. She co-founded the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in Taylor, Arizona (USA), where numerous solar applications and sustainable practices can still be learned. Barbara received the "Women in Solar Energy" award from the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) in July of 2006. The award "recognizes a woman who has contributed significantly to the acceptance and advancement of women in solar by any of the following means: advocacy, education, technical efforts, contracting or implementing social change." Barbara Prosser Kerr, 86, passed away peacefully at home on April 2, 2012.

Recipient of Women in Solar Energy Award[]

The Women in Solar Energy Award was designed to recognize a woman who has contributed significantly to the acceptance and advancement of women in solar by any of the following means: advocacy, education, technical efforts, contracting or implementing social change. Barbara Prosser Kerr is recognized as one of the primary founders of the solar cooking movement. In the early 1970s she designed an early cardboard box cooker, an early solar wall oven and a solar panel cooker known as the Cookit. Solar cookers are in widespread use in Africa and elsewhere, especially in refugee camps, both to cook food and to pasteurize unsanitary water. These designs are currently used and promoted by Solar Cookers International, of which Kerr was a founding board member. She cofounded the Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in Taylor, Ariz., at which numerous solar applications and sustainable practices can still be learned.

Audio and video[]

September 2016:

Solar_Cooking_with_Barbara_Kerr_and_Sherry_Cole — Solar Cooking with Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole

This video is about Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole at their Sustainable Living Center in Taylor Arizona in 1997.

October 2009:

A_Day_In_The_Sun_Part_I — A Day In The Sun Part I

A Day In The Sun Part II chronicles the events of the 1990 Tucson Solar Potluck. Segements include interviews with **Barbara Kerr** and Sherry Cole, inventors of the Kerr-Cole Solar Box Cooker, which begins at 5:00.

July 2002: Audio interview with Barbara Kerr

March 2002: Audio interview with Barbara Kerr and Jim Scott

History of the 7-Panel Backpacker solar cooker[]

Barbara Kerr designed the 7-Panel Backpacker solar cooker, which is based on the ROB (Reflective Open Box Cooker), in response to a request from a hiker needing a readily transportable solar cooker. This cooker is the direct ancestor of the CooKit, which was engineered by Solar Cookers International for mass production. To convince the SCI Board that perhaps this was a better third-world choice than her cardboard box cooker that SCI was promoting at the time, Barbara simply sent a Backpacker to each SCI Board member as a Christmas present (without comment). Initially the SCI folk thought it would be ineffective, until some of them actually tried it. The rest is history.

Below are the original construction plans for the 7-Panel Backpacker solar cooker.