In the 1970s, Tempe residents Barbara Kerr and Sherry Cole were working on a clean-air campaign and often had friends over to help brainstorm. Kerr was happy to help feed the group, but wanted to figure out a way to serve a lot of people and not have to heat up her house.

Kerr, who for years had been environmentally conscious, tinkered with creating a backyard solar oven. Cole would offer suggestions until the cardboard device finally did the job.

The two never realized their work would lead to not only helping the average household cook, but aiding Third World countries.

Kerr, who died April 2 in Taylor, a few miles north of Show Low, is being remembered today as one of the pioneers of the current solar-cooking movement. She was 86. The design Kerr came to improve has been used by solar enthusiasts across the country and by refugees across the world, including Kenya and New Zealand.

"She was a wonderful woman, wise and determined," said Phoenix resident Jim Arwood, who served as the director of the Arizona Energy Office from 2005 to 2010. He met Kerr in 1978 while at Phoenix College. She set up an exhibit of her solar cooking at an energy expo he helped organize. Ten years later, he did a documentary on the popularity of solar cooking and included Kerr and Cole.

"Barbara's contribution to society is that she came up with an oven that was simple to make and could be made out of materials that were cheap and readily available,'' Arwood said. "And it had an impact of helping humanity. She saw the big picture."

Residents in the Third World countries didn't always have access to firewood, so the solar cookers helped them live, even using them to make contaminated water drinkable, he said.

Kerr became known for her experimental home in Taylor, which is a showplace for inexpensive, people-friendly solar tools and sustainable living. To assure the continuance of her work, she created the non-profit Kerr-Cole Sustainable Living Center in 2002.

"Like a musical note, sustainable living carries forward healthy and harmonious conditions for long periods even in the face of emergency," Kerr once wrote. "Although most sustainable literature focuses on 'back to the land,' I focus on 'do it now and build from here.' "