Anne Kerr, longtime Florida Southern College president, announces she'll retire this year

Longtime Florida Southern College President Anne B. Kerr plans to retire this year.

Kerr, 69, made the announcement Friday at the college's board of trustees meeting, board chairman Robert L. Fryer said in a news release posted to the college's website.

“It has been an honor and great blessing to serve as president of what I consider to be the finest small college in the nation," Kerr said in the news release. "I am deeply grateful for the unflagging support of the Florida Southern College Board of Trustees, the untiring commitment to excellence of an exceptional faculty, and the dedication and tireless work of the staff in fulfilling the College’s mission to provide a learning community that enables students to realize their dreams and make a consequential impact on society."

Kerr took over as the 17th president of the private, liberal arts college on June 1, 2004, taking over for Tom Reuschling, who served as president for 10 years.

According to a 2004 story in The Ledger, Kerr was born in Augusta, Georgia, to Christine and Edward Broughton. She received a bachelor's degree in psychology from Mercer University in Macon, where she developed her interest in education.

"Education was a business," she told The Ledger, "but it made a huge difference."

She received a master's in counseling and doctorate in higher education administration from Florida State University. She later worked as an educational analyst for the state, then as an assistant dean at the University of Central Florida. She joined Rollins College in 1983 as assistant dean for its Crummer School of Business and advanced to the college's vice president of institutional advancement.

She took a job as the vice president of advancement at the University of Richmond in Virginia two years before taking the president position at Florida Southern.

Kerr met her husband, Roy Kerr, in 1981 in Orlando. The couple have one son, Edward B. Kerr, an attorney residing in Lakeland, according to the FSC release.

During Kerr's tenure at FSC, the college has added 22 new buildings, expanded 20 others and restored many of the famed Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, according to the release. The campus holds the largest single-site collection of Wright's work.

The college created the The Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise in 2011, a doctor of physical therapy degree program in 2019 and the Ann Blanton Edwards School of Nursing in 2021.

In 2010, the Florida Southern started The Roberts Academy, the only transitional school in Florida for second- through eighth-grade students with dyslexia.

In 2017, Florida Southern became affiliated with the Polk Museum of Art.

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Florida Southern's student enrollment is more than 3,300, according to the release.

"I want Florida Southern College to be recognized as one of the nation's small, preeminent colleges," Kerr told The Ledger in 2004.

The college has frequently been ranked among the top private, small colleges in the region. Last year, the school was named one of the top 10 “Best Regional Universities in the South.” It was the 13th year that FSC has received the designation.

According to the school's news release, Fryer will lead the search committee for the next president. He said the search process will begin this month. Kerr will continue as president until her successor starts.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Longtime Florida Southern president Anne Kerr plans to retire