Organizer, promotor, and chief cheerleader of a wide range of North Carolina history projects during the last four decades, Kevin Cherry grew up on a tomato farm in Denver, NC. Kevin’s long–extremely long–educational career at UNC-CH saw him receive four degrees and, perhaps, also set a record for working in the most UNC libraries and collections than any other student worker/graduate assistant “nine”. While a local history librarian in Rowan County, he pulled together partners to revitalize the state’s public library local history collections, becoming a leader in the North Carolina Library Association and a member of the American Library Association Council. It was then that the promise of new technologies called, and despite never really being a techie, he became North Carolina’s grassroots promotor of the uses of the Internet by cultural institutions.

Working for the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, he became the state’s Johnny Appleseed of “new technologies for old things,” speaking at libraries, museums, and historical societies from one end of the state to the other. When not on the road, Kevin led efforts to develop a grant program to inspire digital models, workshops to teach the basics, and procedures to translate the protocols and technical language of cutting-edge institutions into something more accessible and useable by volunteer-run organizations.

At the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), he managed what was then the largest competitive library grant program in the nation. Its mission was to prepare a new generation of librarians and archivists (and later museum professionals) to preserve the record of human achievement stored, in digital form. The capstone of these efforts was the creation, with the Library of Congress, of the National Digital Stewardship Residency Program, whose graduates went on to be leaders in digital preservation around the country.

Kevin returned to North Carolina to become the Deputy Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. He crafted a near-constant set of “joint programs” designed to allow each museum or site to contribute a small amount to reduce the overall burden while getting the “biggest bang” for everyone. The most successful of these programs demonstrated the feasibility of a small boat cruise industry for the Albemarle region, which is now coming to fruition.

Wishing to tell a more inclusive North Carolina story, he increased African American and Native American programming across the board and advocated for adding a Civil Rights leader’s home to State Historic Sites. He also pushed for a Revolutionary War-era “Race to the Dan” historical park and the creation of the Thomas Day State Historic Site to interpret the complicated story of the state’s most celebrated free man of color. He also started the efforts to preserve Edenton’s Hayes, a state treasure. All are now taking place.

Remembering his own fourth and eighth grade North Carolina history years, he lamented the loss of good state history resources for schoolchildren and led the department’s Historical Publications unit in beginning a children’s nonfiction series on North Carolina topics, then joined the State Library in further developing a project from earlier in his career, an online North Carolina history textbook, NC ANCHOR. While deputy secretary, the annual State “History Day Competition” became his own personal holiday.  And the favorite thing for this former “Tar Heel Junior Historian” to do was lead the State Toast at the Tar Heel Junior Historians’ annual state convention.

Kevin now works for Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, the Jenrette Foundation, where he has focused his energies on crafting a grant and education program to develop the next generation of leaders in Historic Preservation, Collection Management, and Historic Trades.