D. Gail (Kerr) Kearns, 76, died suddenly at her Concord home on March 11, 2021. She was born near the end of World War II on December 23, 1944, in Cleveland, Tennessee, where she grew up. Her parents were Dick and Dorothy Kerr, who were a lawyer and an elementary teacher. Her father, H.D. Kerr, was from the very old Kerr family of middle Tennessee. Her mother, Dorothy Lewis Kerr, was of Meriwether Lewis' family on her father's side. Gail received a Bachelor's Degree in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, TN, in 1966 and a Master's Degree in Education (in reading) from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, in 1982, and a Certificate of Advanced Study (also in reading) from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1983. She taught English in Titusville, Florida, in 1966-1967, and then came to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1967 where she taught Junior High English for several years in the Boston Public Schools of Hyde Park, and fifth grade in the North End. After her marriage in 1969 to Daniel E. Kearns, of Dorchester, MA, the two moved from Boston and made their home in Concord, Massachusetts where the beautiful Great Meadows wildlife area was almost in their back yard. Dan worked for more than 50 years in many roles for the Boston Public Schools, including as a Community Superintendent for 16 schools for several years. He died in 2002 while serving as head of BASAS, the Boston administrators' union which he had helped to create in earlier years. There is a chair in Dan's name located at the Boston College Lynch School of Education known as the first "Chair of Urban Education and Leadership." This chair was first held by Dr. Mary Walsh. The Kearns had three children: Kristin Elizabeth, born in 1970; Daniel Dixon, born in 1973, and Margaret Gail, born in 1975. After all their children were in Concord schools, and after Gail had obtained additional degrees in reading education, she became a reading specialist in the public schools of Needham and then in Lexington, MA. She also taught reading education classes and supervised reading practicums for students at Lesley University. In 1984-1986 Gail chaired an I.R.A. Greater Boston Council committee of reading specialists in eastern Massachusetts who met with her in Concord for over a year and developed a program and a guidebook for conducting a "Young Authors" program and conference. The conference was given at Lesley College in 1986 for the Young Authors in the program and their classroom teachers. Some many years later, she also did some research on vocabulary with Dr. Andrew Biemiller of Toronto. They published a paper in a Boston journal on a new group method of testing the oral vocabulary of children in grades K-2. Gail also worked for her teacher and Harvard mentor Jeanne Chall on the first edition of Chall and Roswell's reading test Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, published then by Houghton Mifflin. After Chall's death, Gail worked on, revised, and published in 2006 with the other (living) author Mary E. Curtis, the second edition of the Diagnostic Assessments of Reading, Form B, published now by Pro-Ed. In 1996, as the years of "declining enrollment" ended many jobs in education, Gail opened a small private diagnostic reading clinic in Concord. The Kearns Reading Clinic was in operation for almost a decade of years and helped many children in Concord and from towns around Concord to become better readers. The Clinic ended in the year Dan died. Gail was a long-time member of the Trinitarian Congregational Church of Concord, MA. She was the originator of the "Youth Activities" that enabled the Concord CROP Walk to become a leader in raising money for hunger for more than 25 years. She was also a member of the town Democratic Party and was an elected member of the Concord Democratic Committee. Gail also was a member of the Boston Area Guild of Puppeteers and wrote many articles for its publication, the BAGOP Control Stick, and several for other publications in puppetry. She took up the violin in her 60s and joined the Lincoln Sudbury Community Orchestra. She leaves behind a brother Dixon Kerr of Richmond VA, children Kristin Kearns of Bolton, Margaret Kearns of Weymouth, and Dan Kearns of Half Moon Bay, CA along with grandchildren Eve, Josephine and Louisa Kearns. She was predeceased by her husband Dan and her sister Charlotte Ann (Kerr). Gail was laid to rest during a private burial service on March 18th at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord. Click  here  for a map of the Kearns gravesite. A memorial celebrating Gail's life is taking place Saturday, June 4, 2022. See detail in the below postcard to RSVP. The family requests those who wish to express sympathy to consider making a contribution in Gail's memory to Julie's Family Learning Program, 133 Dorchester Street, South Boston, MA 02127 (juliesfamily.org). Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord.