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The six lives of Kent Devereaux: The musician, artist, producer, director, professor, and president

As told to Goucher Magazine

Kent Devereaux became Goucher’s 12th president in July 2019. We knew about Kent’s history as a professor, department chair, dean, and college president at prior institutions, but we wanted to know more, so we spent some time with him to find out what early experiences made him who he is. From touring with a rock band to teaching time arts, this is Kent, in his own words.

Kent at first blush.

I’m a fourth-generation Californian. The first five years of my life, we lived in Napa Valley, in a little town called Calistoga, which was a dirt-poor town at the time. Then tourism discovered the wine industry. Today it’s a town where people spend thousands on spa retreats and wine tastings.

We moved to Santa Cruz when the University of California Santa Cruz first opened in 1964. Santa Cruz is a college town right on the ocean, but it had been a sleepy old resort town with a boardwalk amusement park. It was the setting for Jordan Peele’s last movie, Us, which is a horror story. I love that—my hometown, a horror story. That’s perfect.

 

A family tradition.

I come from a family of teachers. My mother taught special education. My father taught American history, which I have a big interest in. [See pages 4-5 for one of Kent’s priorities at Goucher: the Hallowed Ground Project.] One of my brothers is a teacher, one is a college administrator, they also both married teachers. My two sisters pursued different careers. I always wanted to be a musician and an artist. Little did I know 30 years later that I’d become a college president.

Read the rest of this article and learn more about our fascinating neighbor in Goucher Magazine