Erim's father, Tevfik Erim, was a diplomat who was a member of the Political Section of the Secretariat of the
League of Nations in the 1930s (attending as such the
Évian Conference) and of the Turkish delegation to the
United Nations in the 1950s. Kenan Erim was raised and educated in
Geneva, Switzerland, and undertook university studies in the United States. He took his first degree in
Classical archaeology at
New York University (NYU) in 1953, and his Ph.D. at
Princeton University in 1958.[2]
In 1957, he lectured at
Indiana University, and from 1958 onwards he was employed by NYU, where he became full professor in 1971. The
NYU Institute of Fine Arts, alongside Oxford University, continues to supervise the excavations at Aphrodisias to this day.[3] There is a grave memorial to Professor Erim near the
reconstructed Tetraplyon.[4]