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RIDGELAND, Miss. — As Holmes Community College celebrates its 100th year, few families reflect the college’s deep community roots and history quite like the Carr family of Ridgeland. With three generations of Bulldogs, family land that became part of both the Holmes Ridgeland Campus and Ridgeland High School, and a home still standing beside the campus today, the Carrs have been connected to Holmes since 1960.
Robby Carr, a 1993 Holmes alumnus and former football player on the Goodman Campus, represents the second generation in a long line of Bulldogs. His father, Harvey Price Carr Jr., played football for Holmes in 1960–61, and his brother, Chad Carr, attended Holmes from 1996–97 on the Ridgeland Campus. Continuing the tradition, Robby’s son, Jack Carr, was a punter for the Bulldogs in 2020.
“The Ridgeland Campus was a cow pasture when I was 10 or 11,” Robby recalled. “We lived in a house off Carr Road—now Topgolf—and later bought the house next door to what is now the campus. Holmes approached my grandfather and dad about buying the land, and those conversations helped shape what the Ridgeland Campus is today.”
In the early 1980s, Robby’s grandfather and great-uncles sold the first 40 acres to Holmes, enabling the Ridgeland Campus to open for classes in 1985. A second land sale in 2001 expanded the property to approximately 80 acres. Robby’s grandfather and one of his brothers also sold another 80-acre tract that is now home to Ridgeland High School, extending the family’s legacy in local education.
“My dad served four terms—16 years—as Alderman in Ridgeland alongside Mayor Gene McGee,” Robby said. “Public service runs deep in our family. My great-great-grandfather, John Wesley Carr, who moved our family here in 1899, served as Mayor of Ridgeland in the early 1900s. His son, my great-grandfather, Jack Carr—whom my son Jack is named after—also served several years as an Alderman.”
Robby’s connection to Holmes runs deep, stretching from his own time on the football field to his visits cheering on the Bulldogs over the past 30 years—especially when his son Jack wore the team’s jersey. But his ties to Ridgeland go even further back. It was Robby’s great-great-grandfather who first brought the Carr family to the area to work for the Highland Colony Company, a farming business that attracted families from the North with its milder climate and rich agricultural opportunities. In many ways, Robby’s time at Holmes and his ongoing presence at games is a continuation of a legacy that began more than a century ago, rooted in both family and community.
“Many families, including ours, moved South because of the weather,” Robby said.
Today, Robby serves as senior vice president of Origin Bank, a position he has held since 2011, following a decade as assistant vice president at Regions Bank. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business, management, marketing and related support services from Delta State University, where he made both the President’s and Dean’s Lists and played football.
He remains actively involved in community leadership, serving as treasurer of the Historical Committee of Ridgeland since 2012, as well as in past roles on the Madison and Ridgeland Chambers of Commerce boards.
Robby’s wife, Suzanne McKnight Carr, is also a 1993 Holmes alumna. Although they didn’t date during college, they reconnected years later and married in 2020. The couple now live in the same home beside the Ridgeland Campus that has been in the Carr family for generations—where their three dogs, Conway (a dachshund), Dixie (a female doberman) and Mijo Von Carr (their newest addition, a male doberman), have become the unofficial mascots for the Holmes soccer team.
“Holmes has been part of my family for as long as I can remember,” Robby said. “It’s more than a college to us—it’s part of our history, our community and our home.”
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