10 Tars Among Winter Park’s Most Influential

Every year, Winter Park Magazine publishes a list of the city’s most influential residents in its summer issue. Not surprisingly, Tars tend to appear prominently. Rita Bornstein ’04H ’04HAL, Polly Seymour, Micki Meyer, and Ena Heller made the 2017 edition of the list. Four more Tars, including President Grant Cornwell and Peg Cornwell, made the cut in 2016, and the inaugural list in 2015 included Allan E. Keen ’70 ’71MBA ’10H, Thaddeus Seymour, and Harold Ward ’86H. 

This year, more than half of the honorees boast a past or present connection to the College. To celebrate, we put together a sneak peek of this year’s collection of influential Tars. The full list appears in the magazine’s summer 2018 issue, which is available now.

Billy Collins

Rollins connection: Senior Distinguished Fellow, Winter Park Institute at Rollins College

Why he’s on the list: The magazine’s editors call Collins, a two-term U.S. poet laureate and New York Times bestseller, “the most important writer of any genre ever to have a 32789 zip code.”

Alan Ginsburg

Rollins connection: Rollins Trustee and Hamilton Holt School Board Member

Why he’s on the list: The magazine’s editors call Ginsburg, CEO of AHG Group and a Rollins trustee, one of the region’s most respected and generous philanthropists.

Rick Baldwin

Rollins connection: Former Hamilton Holt School and Cornell Fine Arts Museum Board Member

Why he’s on the list: The magazine’s editors call Baldwin, who is the CEO of Baldwin Brothers Cremation, “one of Winter Park’s most respected businesspeople, in part because of his personal warmth and in part because he has done so much to improve the lives of people who haven’t yet needed his professional services—particularly children and senior citizens.”

Betsy Gwinn

Rollins connection: Executive Director, Bach Festival Society of Winter Park

Why she’s on the list: Because she “makes certain that the society—arguably the region’s most significant cultural organization—is well funded though a complex web of public, quasi-public, and philanthropic sources.”

Tom Klusman

Rollins connection: Head Coach, Rollins Men’s Basketball

Why he’s on the list: Because what’s most important to Klusman, the 10th winningest coach in NCAA Division II history, is “that his players experience Rollins as students first and athletes second.”

Jack Lane

Rollins connection: Professor of American History Emeritus

Why he’s on the list: Because “if not for Jack Lane, the history of Rollins College—and by extension, a considerable swath of Winter Park history—would today be obscure or unknown.”

Fairolyn Livingston ’83

Rollins connection: Alumna

Why she’s on the list: The magazine’s editors call Livingston, who is chief historian of the Hannibal Square Heritage Center, “the institutional memory of Winter Park’s west side.”

Jesse Martinez

Rollins connection: General Manager, The Alfond Inn at Rollins College

Why he’s on the list: Because “his management savvy” and “his accessibility and pay-it-forward personal philosophy” have helped the AAA Four Diamond hotel rank among the best in the world.

Genean Hawkins McKinnon

Rollins connection: Hamilton Holt School Board Member

Why she’s on the list: Because McKinnon has helped spearhead some of the area’s most significant developments through her consulting firm, McKinnon Associates.

Cynthia Wood

Rollins connection: Former Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Why she’s on the list: Because Wood, who is president and owner of Cynthia Wood Philanthropy Partner, “has particular expertise in teaching nonprofits how to engage the inherent generosity of female donors.”