If you ask Mark Kerr, there are plenty of people in this community more deserving of the title Citizen of the Year.
There’s the fire department members in both communities, Lisbon-Mount Vernon Ambulance Service or the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Police Department, for starters.
But several of those organizations have had golf fundraisers at Kernoustie Golf Course over the years, all because of Kerr’s philanthropy in the community to give back to causes he believes are important.
“I’m truly honored to be named Citizen of the Year, but I just know there’s a list of several more deserving people,” Kerr said. “It’s still very kind of the Mount Vernon-Lisbon Community Development Group to think of me for this.”
Kerr said the recognition is probably his longstanding collaboration with Heritage Days activities at Kernoustie.
“When I purchased the golf club in 2012, Heritage Days activities were already a firmly accomplished event at the golf course,” Kerr said. “Hillcrest had started hosting the events out there in the 1990s and I just continued ongoing what they had done.”
Kerr said that he has had help over the years from a lot of volunteers to make those events run smoothly.
“When I took over, there was nothing to fix,” Kerr said. “Of course, I always tried to add new things every few years to make the event bigger.”
There was the first year where they did the chicken drop, which Kerr notes did not go over well. In later years, however, he added things like live music and the hot air balloon air glows at the golf course ahead of the fireworks displays.
They also added a live stage for music, thanks to the work of friends Ronnie Craig, Rich Herrmann and Paul Schroeder, a stage that gets used in both Mount Vernon and Lisbon for several festivals as well.
He notes that setting up for the festival could be a lot of work at times, especially for something that would last for three hours, and sometimes as all that work happened, he didn’t get chances to see how amazing that year’s event and attendance had been until the first fireworks were launched.
“It wasn’t until those fireworks would get launched and you’d reflect on the day and the fun people had at the events that it hit you,” Kerr said. “What a neat place this community is to live.”
This year, Heritage Days events moved to other locations due to pending redevelopment work at Kernoustie. Kerr noted he missed the events being there this year and is hopeful that project will be concluded in the next year or two and enable him to host the events again.
Outside of his work at Kernoustie, Kerr has also been a member of the Mount Vernon Boosters Club. He notes that some of the neat activities that the Booster club still does this day were around when he was on the club, including Mustang Madness, the fund drive and annual golf tournament.
He was also the Lisbon-Mount Vernon girls golf coach and Mount Vernon girls basketball coach for a number of years, activities he enjoyed.
“I have such great memories of my time working with those students,” Kerr said.
Outside of those things, however, his passion has always been keeping the Kernoustie Golf Course operating and active.
One of his favorite spots on the golf course is the bridge constructed in memory of his daughter Jackie with Terry Lesmeier’s help. Jackie passed away after a battle with ovarian cancer.
Kerr, his wife, Peggy, and kids moved back to Mount Vernon in the 1990s. He attended his 50th class reunion this summer.