A family legacy, a JMU love story

Back in 2019, just before halftime of the Family Weekend football game, Karen Kerndt Perry (’92) was told to take a “special elevator” down to the field with her oldest daughter, Taylor (’20). She was about to be named JMU Parent of the Year in front of a packed stadium of fellow Dukes. 

“I was just dumbfounded,” Karen said. “It was surreal.” She and her three children, Taylor, Maggie and Jack, had been through a heartbreaking year since Karen’s husband and JMU sweetheart Todd Perry (’92) died unexpectedly on a work trip. 

Karen had spotted more than a few close friends in attendance, including many from hers and Todd’s fraternity Delta Sigma Pi. Looking back, she said “grief brain” likely kept her from connecting the dots that something big was about to happen. 

Standing on the 50-yard line while Taylor’s nomination video played, “I was still trying to understand what this was,” Karen said, “but it was so beautiful, and [Taylor’s] words were amazing. The combination of pictures and just seeing [Todd] and having all these people there was something I'll never forget.”

This year, Karen made another unforgettable memory when she established the $1 million Perry Family Endowment, a planned gift that will be devoted to the greatest needs of the university upon her passing. “It definitely means a lot to continue Todd’s legacy,” Karen said. “He had so many plans of what he wanted to do with his life, which always included giving to others. We had discussed how to give to JMU, and I know this was the perfect choice,” she said.

“And [through this gift], we can continue the great work he would have accomplished in life.”

‘The same zest for life’

Karen Kerndt met Todd Perry wearing her “grown-up business clothes” at a wine and cheese recruiting event. It was the spring semester of their junior year, and they were both pledging Delta Sigma Pi. Karen remembers talking with Todd about his great love of soccer after she noticed a soccer pin on his lapel. 

Todd was “a dominant personality within our pledge group,” she said, “so it was hard not to know him and connect with him.” 

Matt Lesky (’92) had pledged the year before, and when he met Todd, “we just hit it off,” he said. “Todd just took a genuine interest in almost everybody, but especially in sports and topics that he found very intriguing to him. He just had that ability to really connect with you on a very personal level.”

Cathy Withrow Labick (’93), Karen’s “little brother” in Delta Sigma Pi and best friend, described Todd as the most confident person in the room. “You always felt seen by him,” she said. “He knew everything about everything, and he always was so completely, immediately immersed in your conversation.”

Initially, Karen and Todd were just brothers and friends, but that all changed when they both chose to stay on campus for JMU Maymester. Karen had enrolled in a “very fun, easy oceanography class” to fulfill her science degree. “It was quite a perfect Maymester class,” she said. “[And] Maymester is such a magical thing at JMU anyway.” Meanwhile, Todd was spending four hours each day in a business simulations class. Despite the disparate course load, the extra time on campus set their love story in motion. The match was clear to their friends from the start.

“You could just tell that there was an immediate connection,” Matt said. “They were just two peas in a pod. They both had the same zest for life, and they always were super positive, both of them.”

Theirs was a relationship that beckoned others into deeper friendship. “I think the three of us almost hung out every weekend that year and with other friends,” Matt said. “It was just lots of laughs and love is what I recall.”

“Todd and I only overlapped one semester,” Cathy added, “and he was the second most important person in my life from JMU. Karen and Todd made me love JMU even more.”

Becoming JMU parents

After graduation, Karen and Todd got married and returned to campus occasionally to speak to students majoring in business and recruit for their employers. But as the years passed, parenthood and work travel increased the time between campus visits. They found other ways to stay connected. Unable to attend the 2004 national championship football game, they found a sports bar where they could cheer on the Dukes.

Then, their daughter, Taylor, became a Duke, giving Todd and Karen a new connection with their alma mater. As JMU parents, Karen said they “totally embraced” any reason to return to campus, including Taylor’s dance performances and every single home football game her freshman year. At JMU, “we started seeing the college environment and how important it was,” she said.   

Taylor was a third generation Duke, following in the footsteps of her parents and her maternal grandmother, Susan Trossbach Kerndt (’70). After applying for and receiving a legacy scholarship, Taylor attended a special picnic for the scholarship recipients. “It just made her instantly feel a little bit more connected and focused,” she said. Todd and Karen became curious about the university’s needs — particularly support for students who depend on scholarships to become Dukes. 

“[JMU] gave so much to us, both individually, and then as a couple, as a family, and then obviously seeing Taylor there,” Karen said. “So it just felt like the right place to throw time, energy and money.”

Finding strength in her JMU community

Then, in 2018, Todd died unexpectedly while on a work trip. Suddenly, Karen was a single mother to three children. “She went back to work after years of focusing on raising and taking care of her family,” Taylor said in her nomination video, “[and] she pulled together numerous ceremonies and events to remember my dad in the communities he was loved most, and she did it all while mourning him herself.” Karen had also established the Todd Perry (’92) Aspiring Analytics Endowed Scholarship in the Department of Computer Information Systems.

Delta Sigma Pi friends engulfed the family. “It was yet another example of one of our circles, one of our communities, coming to support me and the entire family,” Karen said. “We are blessed that so many people were there and stood up and took care of things.”

“When people say that I'm strong — and that may be the case or I just had no choice — it was only because of the support from the people in our communities, and the JMU group never faltered.”

Keeping Todd’s spirit alive

“Karen never gives herself enough credit for supporting others. She is constantly doing things for her family, her friends and community,” Cathy said. In addition to the scholarship she started in Todd’s honor, Karen is an Amethyst Circle Founder for Women for Madison.

Selflessness is a trait she and Todd shared. “Todd was the ultimate ‘drop everything [for you]’ guy,” Cathy said. After she graduated from JMU, it was Todd who advocated for her to be hired at Accenture. Today, Labick has worked at Accenture for almost 30 years. “Todd is the reason I have my career,” she said, “and one reason why my family donates to the scholarship in Todd's honor each year.”

The recently named Perry Family Endowment is a $1 million planned gift, half of which will be used for immediate university needs and the other half which will be endowed for future needs. The endowment embodies both Karen and Todd’s legacy of putting others’ needs before their own.

“This endowment lives on and truly keeps Todd’s spirit alive — being able to help others …,” Matt said. “It's amazing what Karen and Todd's family is doing.”

“To me, the endowment makes perfect sense,” Cathy said. “What JMU gave to [Karen] was her family, her friendships, her life …. Todd would have been 100% behind all of this.”  

“It does feel like [we created] something larger than us,” Karen said, “larger than any of us individually.”