Dr. Kerr's predecessor, David S. Dodge, acting president of the university, was kidnapped in July 1982 by pro- Iranian gunmen and taken to Teheran via Baalbek and Damascus. Mr. Dodge was released last July 21 through the intervention of Syria.

The university campus was occasionally shelled during the 19 months of civil war in Lebanon in the 1970's, and in 1976 two deans were shot to death on the campus by a gunman whose motivation was unclear.

Dr. Kerr was born and raised on the American University campus, where his father, Stanley, was a biochemist and his mother, Elsa, was the dean of women. He met his wife, Ann, while she was studying at the university.

It was his life's ambition to return to Beirut and lead the university, a goal he was finally able to achieve in September 1982 when he took over as the ninth president of the university.

Dr. Kerr was a modest and extremely popular figure among his 4,800 students and faculty, according to his colleagues here.

He was killed, his friends insist, not for being who he was, but because now that the marines and the American Embassy in Beirut are smothered in security, he was the most vulnerable prominent American in Lebanon and a choice target for militants trying to intimidate Americans into leaving.

''Since he was a little boy, all Malcolm ever really wanted was to be president of A.U.B.,'' said one of his oldest friends, Prof. Edwin T. Prothro, head of the Center for Behavioral Research at the university. ''When the time came, he knew his life could be in danger - he talked about it to me several times - but he took the job anyways because he loved this place and he wanted to build it into something special. In the end he was killed not for who he was or what he did, but for what he symbolized to others who never even knew him.''

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

According to university officials familiar with the events leading up to the killing, Dr. Kerr left his official residence in the heart of the wooded, 73-acre campus shortly after 8 A.M. and was driven by his chauffeur to his bank in West Beirut. Dr. Kerr had been given a bodyguard by the university soon after he arrived in Lebanon, but he quickly dismissed him, arguing that it was not proper for a university president to go around campus with a bodyguard.

At roughly 9 A.M. Dr. Kerr arrived by car back at the university campus - normally an island of serenity in the chaos that has become Beirut - and paid a quick visit to the office of one of his staff members before heading for College Hall, the main administrative building, which houses his office. Crowded for Registration

At around 9:08 A.M. he walked into the courtyard of College Hall, which was crowded at the time with students registering for courses for the spring term, beginning in February. His assailants undoubtedly found it easy to disappear into such a crowd. According to police sources, one witness thought he saw one of the gunmen rushing out of the building and that he was wearing blue jeans and a leather jacket and carrying a zippered briefcase.

At about 9:09 A.M. Dr. Kerr, a tall, lanky man who was never difficult to pick out in a crowd of his shorter students, entered the elevator at College Hall. Two other males entered the elevator with him, according to a student who was about to join them but decided that there was not enough room and that it would not be right to crowd the university president. It is not clear if the other passengers in the elevator were the killers.

About a minute later, Dr. Kerr, carrying his briefcase in one hand and an umbrella in the other, stepped off the elevator on the third floor and walked about 12 paces, heading for his office at the end of the hallway. His secretary, Ann Baasari, was on the telephone at the time with a dean who was waiting for Dr. Kerr. She told the police that she looked up, saw the president coming toward her and informed the dean: ''Oh, here he comes now.'' Then she looked down again.

Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters.

A split second later the two gunmen stepped forward, either from the elevator or the stairwell just to the right of it, and one of them quickly pumped two bullets into Dr. Kerr's head with a silencer-equipped revolver. When his secretary looked back up again, all she saw was the backs of two men starting to run away.

Abdul Hallab, a dean whose office is between the elevator and Dr. Kerr's office, heard a noise and ran out to see what it was. He found the university president sprawled on the floor in a pool of blood and heard footsteps scampering down the stairs, he told the police.

The body lay on the floor until an ambulance could be summoned, during which time Dr. Kerr's wife rushed in from their house. Students began rushing around the campus interrupting lectures and telling one another that ''President Kerr has been shot.''

Just before 9:20 A.M., Dr. Kerr's body arrived at the nearby American University Hospital, for which he was also responsible.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

Within minutes after the shooting, policemen and Lebanese Army soldiers wielding M-16 automatic rifles sealed off all four gates of the university and began a building-by-building search for the killers. But the two men were apparently able to escape before the gates could be shut. Security Precautions at Gates

The gates of the American University are normally guarded by elements of the Lebanese Army and Internal Security Force, and in theory all visitors are required to present their university credentials and submit to searches. But security often became very cursory during peak hours, like the morning, and some visitors were often waved in with barely a glance at their identity papers.

The vice president of the university, Samir Thabet, assumed the post of acting president and ordered all university activities suspended until Monday in mourning for Dr. Kerr.

Both students and faculty members appeared stunned and revolted by the killing of their president, who in his short tenure had earned the respect of people from all parts of Lebanon's fractured political spectrum.

He was well known for sitting with students around campus and joining their discussions in colloquial Arabic. For all the time he spent in the United States, Beirut was where he felt most at home, where he could still banter with the shopkeepers and barbers he knew as a youth.

''Most of us knew him personally,'' said John Hanna, a 20-year-old political science major. ''He wasn't just a president, he was a friend. He used to come to the student dorms and sit with us all the time.''

It was ironic, several colleagues said, that of all people Dr. Kerr should be killed by suspected Moslem fundamentalists for being a symbol of the United States. He had devoted virtually his entire life to the study and understanding of Islam and contemporary Arab politics.

''Malcolm Kerr was a friend of Lebanon, a friend of the Arabs and a friend of Islam,'' remarked his longtime associate, Kamal Salabi, chairman of the Department of History. ''He was the best kind of American who came to the Middle East. He and Ann told me recently that they came back to Lebanon to pull the A.U.B. back together and by doing so do their little thing for pulling Lebanon as a whole back together. He had a vision for A.U.B. to be a great institution at a time when it was very difficult for anyone to have such a vision.''

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

''We have lost a great friend,'' remarked Radwan Mawlawi, the university's director of information. ''We did not deserve someone as good as Malcolm at this time.''

Reagan Deplores Killing

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Reuters) - President Reagan today denounced the ''despicable assassins'' who killed the president of American University in Beirut, Malcolm H. Kerr, and said such acts of terrorism only strengthened his resolve to stand firm in Lebanon.

The killing ''must strengthen our resolve not to give in to the acts of terrorists,'' Mr. Reagan said in statement released by the White House. ''Terrorism must not be allowed to take control of the lives, actions, or future of ourselves and our friends.''