Chris and Kim Kennedy Share

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Mar­i­on native Chris Kennedy and his wife Kim are retir­ing to be with fam­i­ly on the south­ern Mis­sis­sip­pi coast, but will help per­pet­u­ate a fam­i­ly lega­cy in Mar­i­on, Indi­ana, through the Kennedy Art Cen­ter. The Kennedy fam­i­ly long ago built a foun­da­tion around the arts in which Chris and Kim hope to hon­or. After a long search, the fam­i­ly worked with BDP Real Estate to pur­chase the first and low­er lev­el of 326 S. Wash­ing­ton St., and the Kennedy Art Cen­ter opened in May of 2023.

“The K.A.C. was a call­ing. A col­lab­o­ra­tion. It’s a place where peo­ple can come togeth­er, and arts orga­ni­za­tions can have a home,” said Chris. ​“We knew we would even­tu­al­ly retire to Mis­sis­sip­pi to be with our two daugh­ters and their fam­i­lies, but didn’t know how it would hap­pen. In Octo­ber of 2022, the oppor­tu­ni­ty came forth to sell our fam­i­ly coun­ter­top man­u­fac­tur­ing and cab­i­net dis­tri­b­u­tion busi­ness, Hart­son-Kennedy, to a long­time sup­pli­er, the Formi­ca Cor­po­ra­tion and their par­ent, Broad­view Hold­ing. It’s a dream come true. We can now all be togeth­er, while the lega­cy in homage to my fam­i­ly can live on.”

Chris was born and raised in Mar­i­on, and Kim was born and raised in Biloxi, MS, where the two met and were mar­ried. Both share the Catholic faith. There­fore, upon mov­ing to Indi­ana to be near Chris’ fam­i­ly, they resided in Noblesville to raise their daugh­ters in the Catholic school sys­tem through grad­u­a­tion. Over the years, Chris and Kim were high­ly involved in their church, St. Louis de Mont­fort in Fish­ers, and their daugh­ters’ schools, Our Lady of Grace Ele­men­tary and Guerin Catholic High School in Noblesville. Now the daugh­ters are grown with hus­bands and kids of their own, and reside in the Ocean Springs, Mis­sis­sip­pi area.

Chris and Kim have let their faith lead them to serve in numer­ous ways in and around Mar­i­on. Chris has served on the board of the Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Grant Coun­ty, and in 2019 hon­ored the request of May­or Jess Alum­baugh to ini­ti­ate and lead the Mar­i­on Arts Com­mis­sion from its infan­cy through May of this year. He and Kim togeth­er have sup­port­ed var­i­ous oth­er groups such as Radi­ant Health, the Unit­ed Way of Grant Coun­ty, Hope City, and more. For the past sev­en years, the cou­ple has been instru­men­tal in car­ry­ing forth the non­prof­it mis­sion of a Rwan­dan geno­cide sur­vivor and help­ing refugee fam­i­lies. Uti­liz­ing her nurs­ing career back­ground, Kim has vol­un­teered at their daugh­ters’ schools, and has helped fam­i­lies which con­nect­ed them with the Rwan­dan refugee.

Chris said they have been blessed to be a part of the com­mu­ni­ty. ​“We not only want to car­ry on my family’s lega­cy, but help Mar­i­on serve and grow as a vibrant wel­com­ing community.”