A peek inside President Kerr's home
Print: Sara Planco, Broadcast: Olando Wilson & Jessica Gregoire
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: News
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Her son, Edward, opens the door to a lovely foyer. "You must be the photographers," he said.
Only seconds later, Dr. Kerr greets us in her living room. Once
she is informed that we will be filming the interview as well, she immediately says, "I'm going to need some lip stick."
Not only does she have all the qualities one would want in his or her College President, but also those that one would want in his or her mother, sister, and friend.
Edward, a freshman in high school, remained present for the interview, to help reflect on their life as a family. Their family life began 27 years at an apartment complex pool, when Dr. Kerr
met her husband, Roy.
Three weeks later they were engaged, and three months after that, they were married at Rollins College chapel.
"We were on a date, and he said 'I think I'd like to marry you.' I said, 'Good. When?'" Kerr said.
Dr. Kerr was born and raised in Augusta, Ga. She attended Mercer University, and Florida State for graduate school. It was not until 2004, that she moved to Lakeland to become president of Florida Southern College.
"I think [education] has always been in me. I loved going to school, I loved my teachers, I thought what they did was so important. And I really think that the key to our success as a nation, and just as a people, as Americans, is education, and I really wanted to be a part of that," Kerr said.
She moved into the president's house immediately when coming to FSC. The house was built in 1935 by the president at that time, Led Spivey.
She got rid of the carpeting, to expose the beautiful hard wood floors, and also brought a little bit of her old house to it, including wall paper and paint colors.
Video by: Olando Wilson & Jessica Gregoire
"I love [living on campus]. I absolutely love it. It's such a historic part of the fabric of the campus and that Led Spivey, who was a really famous president of the college, designed it himself. I think that's really neat," Kerr said.
As for rules of the house: no running, and no balls in the house that is rumored to be haunted by Led Spivey himself, although neither Edward nor Kerr have felt the presence of any ghosts.
"My husband is the best cook in the family. He's the cook, I'm the baker."
Their favorite family dishes include fried chicken and pasta. While they mostly eat homemade meals, birthdays are the time to splurge. The birthday person gets to choose where to eat, and can order anything he or she likes.
Her favorite thing to do on weekends is to shop at the Tampa International Mall, eat pancakes at the Village Inn, go to the movies, and church on Sunday mornings. One thing that was not always her favorite is the color red.
"It happened when I came to Florida Southern…I love red now, red is my favorite color," Kerr said.
She claims to always arrive to events right on the dot, just as she did for the interview. Her husband, however, always needs to be everywhere hours in advance, even for movies, which they go to frequently.
Besides movies, they enjoy watching Florida Southern sports games, along with Edward's baseball games.
"This refereeing upsets me so much. I just go wild," Kerr said.
Her husband usually is the first to get home, then her son, and then her, depending on their schedule. They always try to eat half an hour after she gets home, although she is not that big of a dinner person, she loves breakfast, especially the waffles in the cafeteria.
She enjoys reality competition shows, such as "Top Chef," "Ace of Cakes," "Dancing with the Stars," and most recently, "Project Runway," which she started to watch since students talked about
it so often.
When we left the house she was finishing up baking snicker
doodle cookies, that she had intended to have ready for us to eat, but promised to send a batch to us soon. We are looking forward to it.
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