Business leader Roger Kerr dies

Roger Kerr. Photo / Mark Mitchell

High-profile business leader Roger Kerr has died after a year-long battle with metastatic melanoma.

He was 66.

Kerr headed right-wing public policy think tank the New Zealand Business Roundtable for 25 years and was once described by beer baron Sir Douglas Myers as a "national treasure."

He died peacefully at his home last night with family present.

Kerr was born in Nelson in 1945 and spent his childhood on his parents' Appleby dairy farm, attending Appleby Primary and Waimea College.

He attended the University of Canterbury, graduating with a Master of Arts (Honours, First Class) and Victoria University, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration.

From 1986-1994 he was a director of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand and a member of the Council of Victoria University of Wellington from 1995 to 1999, and a member of the Group Board of Colonial Limited in Melbourne from 1996 to 2000.

Kerr supported free market polices and was a vocal proponent of Rogernomics.

Public service roles included stints at Treasury and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Earlier this year he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business. Previous awards included the Tasman Medal in 1994 in recognition of his contribution to public policy and the NZIER Qantas Economics Award in 2001.

In 2005 he was awarded the Charles Copeman Medal by the HR Nicholls Society for distinguished service in the cause of New Zealand and Australian workplace relations, was a fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and a member of the Institute of Directors.

Kerr married Margaret Northcroft in 1968 and the couple had three sons, Bernard, Nicholas and Richard.

He paid tribute to his sons when he received his Order of Merit, saying he was delighted to receive it for his family's sake.

"Especially my three wonderful sons, who did not see as much of me when they were growing up as they might have needed to, when I was so heavily committed to my work."

Kerr and Northcroft later divorced. He married ACT candidate Catherine Isaac early last year.

In April he told TVNZ's The Nation: "Yeah I've got a health issue. I was diagnosed last October with metastatic melanoma, that's a pretty deadly cancer as you'll know, but if the time has come to sign off, well, you know, it comes for all of us at some point of time, but I've had a great life.

"I've had a wonderful career, I've had wonderful friends, I've got a terrific job, and I want to live, so I've got a beautiful new wife, I've got a 15-month-old granddaughter in Seattle, I've still got a lot of work that I want to do...''

He fought the disease to the end, going to the United States earlier this year for a second opinion on the cancer which first showed up more than three years ago as a primary melanoma on his wrist. By last October it had spread to his liver and shoulder blade.

He became the first person in New Zealand to be given the drug Yervoy, reported as being one of the most exciting developments in the battle against melanoma in 25 years. It is used to extend the life of late-stage melanoma patients and works be boosting the body's immune system to attack cancer cells.

In April he said he had "slain a few dragons in my time, and I'm gonna give this one a good old fight."

Sadly, Kerr's cancer was one dragon he couldn't slay and he passed away, surrounded by his family.

He is survived by his wife, three sons and one granddaughter. Another grandchild is expected in January.