David Ker

David Ker (February 1758 – January 21, 1805), born in northern Ireland, was a minister, educator, lawyer and judge, the first presiding professor (equivalent of a modern-day university president) of the University of North Carolina. Early life David Ker was born in February 1758 in Downpatrick, Ireland. He was of Scottish ancestry. He graduated from Trinity College in Dublin. Ker became a Presbyterian minister with the Temple Patrick Presbytery. and married Mary. Ker emigrated with his family to the United States in the 1780s and was recorded in Orange County, North Carolina, by 1789, when their son was born there. Career In 1791, Ker served as a Presbyterian minister in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was a schoolteacher on weekdays and gave sermons in the courthouse on Sundays.