The Duncan Banner

Local News

August 29, 2009

Kerr joins Banner Staff

Toni Hopper

DUNCAN — While many people who move to Duncan claim to come from bigger cities, for The Banner’s newest reporter, Duncan is the big city.

Kevin Kerr is counting his blessings for many things, but mostly because he has a job in a career he’s loved for awhile. Kerr, who hails from Conway Springs, Kan., graduated this year from Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, with a degree in mass communications.

“Between the economy and the way journalism is, Duncan was the best choice. I was incredibly pleased to get this job,” Kerr, 24, said. He had applied and looked at many places before Duncan.

While Kerr may have grown up in a small town, or as he said, “less than 8,000” he’s developed an eclectic background of history and has even experienced a tour of Europe.

His parents, Dennis and Ellen Kerr, are band directors, so he grew up immersed in music. He’s close to his parents and his younger brother, Cory, 21, who also attends NWOSU and is a music major.

“My parents, they were ecstatic that I got a job. They were ready to get me out the door and I was kicked out of the house before I graduated,” he laughed. “I get along with them really well and talk to them on a weekly, sometimes a daily basis.”

At college, he initially chose music as his major, but by his junior year, he knew that really wasn’t the direction he wanted to take. He’d taken some journalism in high school and enjoyed it enough that he put it to the front of his list. He was surprised when he was bumped to the university’s newspaper staff.

“They were hurting for staff members and I got design editor. The next fall, I was editor. It was an awesome experience. Journalism is something I never considered a whole lot of work.”

As for his future in Duncan, he’s looking forward to meeting people, writing stories and covering events.

“The job of journalism is to inform people and that’s what I like to do. I really just want to make a successful career out of it.”

The Banner’s managing editor, Ron Booth, said that he expects good things out of Kerr in the future.

“We interviewed a lot of people for this position in hopes of bringing another quality reporter to the community, and Kevin’s excitement and enthusiasm made him stand out,” Booth said. “I think Kevin has the personality and the skills to be a quality employee and a great addition to our community.”

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