Iowa Friends Share Lifelong Love for Alma Mater

PHOTO: JOHN EMIGH Former college roommates and current UI volunteer leaders Kevin Meredith and James Jorris are pictured in Bo James bar and grill in downtown Iowa City.

Kevin Meredith knows he always has a couch to sleep on when he returns to Iowa City.

When Meredith (01BSE), the president of the Capital Area Iowa Club in Washington, D.C., revisited his alma mater this past spring for a University of Iowa Alumni Leadership Council meeting, he stayed with his college roommate, UI Staff Council President James Jorris. Since their college days celebrating Hawkeye football victories at Bo James bar and grill in downtown Iowa City, the friends haven’t ceased staying in touch—or serving the UI as volunteer leaders.

“For me, it was just about giving back,” says Jorris, who has been a member of the university community for over 20 years—first as a student and now as an employee with patient financial services at UI Hospitals & Clinics and as a leading advocate for UI staff. “The university has given so much to me, and it molded me into who I am today. It’s all due to people like Kevin, the people I’ve met here at the University of Iowa, and the opportunities that have been available to me here.”

“For me, it was just about giving back.” —James Jorris

The friends met in high school in 1996 when Meredith helped D.C. native Jorris acclimate to small-town life in Newton, Iowa. Jorris later served as the best man in Meredith’s wedding and helped Meredith and his wife, Julie Saine (04BA), move to D.C. The Merediths quickly made some of their closest friends there by joining the Capital Area Iowa Club, where Kevin has served as a board member since 2007 and president since 2014. “It’s an easy way to meet people,” says Meredith, an account executive with Amazon Web Services, about his volunteer work. “I think it’s neat to see people come together for the events we host and form lifelong friendships.”

While Meredith and Jorris have met university presidents, legislators, and prominent UI alumni as part of their advocacy work, they say the key to the strength of the Hawkeye network is in its thousands of alumni volunteers. “As a university, we need to celebrate the people who are behind the scenes,” says Meredith. “They’re doing amazing things in their community, in their profession, and with their families with leadership skills that were developed or at least polished at the University of Iowa.”