Island Icon:
Kelly Purvis
By Lilly Adams, CHA Intern All Photos Courtesy of Kelly Purvis Take a stroll down Orange Avenue, maybe find yourself a seat by the fountain, and just take a moment to listen to your surroundings. You may be lucky enough to catch a sweet tune coming from a piano. A piano? In a public space? Ask anyone outside of Coronado about their thoughts on public pianos, I guarantee that the concept is unheard of. This is just one of the many wonderful additions that Kelly Purvis has supported through her work with the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission. Born in Freemont, Nebraska in the 1960s, Kelly grew up in a small, rural town with her parents, older sister Denise, and younger brother Kurt. Kelly’s great grandfather and grandfather were farmers, and Kelly occasionally worked in the fields, de-tasseling corn or hoeing beans, for local farmers in her community. Her favorite memories growing up were of Sunday dinners with her grandparents on the farm and working in the fields with the crops they grew. These simple times made the move
frequently traveled to Las Vegas and ended
Governors, and supporting the creation of
to Las Vegas dramatic. Kelly went from
up recruiting her for the school. Granted a
a scholarship for Coronado High School
mid-western girl to city girl in the middle of
full-ride trustee scholarship, Kelly studied
students interested in the school.
her high school years. Although the change
political science at the university. This was
Out of college, Kelly moved from Los
was shocking, it set Kelly up for a future
where she met her husband Jim, whom
Angeles to San Diego. She began by work-
she never would have previously imagined.
she married two years out of college. Kelly
ing on political fundraising campaigns
She met her lifelong best friend Beth Mills
has three children; William, Amanda, and
for Dorsee Productions where she learned
there, whose grandfather was the inventor
Claire, all of whom attended USC because
many skills in that field. She believes this
of slot machines. Kelly recalled her friend’s
as she quotes her son William, “Why go
is what set her up to start working on
license plate being named “SLOTS” and
anywhere else? Look how happy you and
campaigns for Coronado’s political leaders
believes that that relationship provided her
dad are.” Kelly has stayed connected with
such as Tom Smisek, Chuck Marks, Mona
with an interesting perspective of Vegas.
USC by having past and present involve-
Wilson, Patty Schmidt, and Casey Tanaka.
By what Kelly considers to be “good
ment with the Trojan League, as a recruiter
Fundraising work has always been a passion
fortune” the Dean of Admissions at USC
for the university, serving on the Board of
of Kelly’s. In 1997, Kelly became the first
P58 | Coronado Magazine