Sadie Kramer (far right) performs as Wednesday from The Addams Family during her senior year in high school. Photos courtesy of the Watson family and the Eckerd College Archives
Sadie Kramer’s Eckerd story didn’t start last August when she moved into Alpha Gandhi House at Eckerd as a first-year student.
It predated the 1990s, when her mom, Megan Watson Kramer ’98, left behind a dance career in New York City to study psychology on Eckerd’s campus and a year after college graduation returned to stay, rising to her current position as associate vice president for executive education at Eckerd’s Leadership Development Institute.
It began even before Sadie’s grandparents Sterling Watson ’69 and Kathy Watson ’69 had long tenures as Eckerd professors after earning bachelor’s degrees at the small liberal arts institution back when it was still Florida Presbyterian College.
The seed of Sadie’s Eckerd story was planted by her great-uncle Michael Watson ’68, who had first heard about FPC from a pastor at his Presbyterian church in Orlando. When Michael stopped in to talk to Kathy and Sterling’s high school class about his experiences at the still-new college down the road, he had great things to say about the academic program. But Kathy particularly remembers a “glamorous figure” wearing Bermuda shorts.
“You wore shorts to go to school?” Kathy remembers thinking. “Boy, that was a biggie for us.”
Kathy Watson ’69 in the 1980s on Eckerd’s campus
Kathy and Sterling (middle) at Commencement 1995 with late Professor of Education Russell Bailey ’68.
Six decades, eight bachelor’s degrees—and innumerable pairs of shorts—later, Sadie has become the 10th person in her extended family to attend Eckerd College.
And though Eckerd branches throughout her family tree, her Eckerd story is all her own. Just like any other Eckerd first-year, Sadie loves to lie in the sun on Kappa Field, ride yellow bikes and grab meals with new friends.
That she has ended up here is a surprise to her family and to Sadie. A graduate of St. Petersburg Catholic High School, she grew up attending summer camps at Eckerd every year and had wanted a college experience that felt more novel.
“I never really wanted to go to Eckerd, because it was so close to home,” she says.
An aspiring actor, Sadie had dreamed of colleges close to the film industry in California and toured schools on the West Coast. A meeting her mother, Megan, arranged with Theatre Professors Jessica Thonen and Gavin Hawk changed everything. Sadie learned about the Circle in the Square Theatre program that allows students to study for their last two years in New York City at a renowned theatre school. And she saw how comprehensive and personal an Eckerd theatre education could be. She is already getting a taste of the program in a monologue class with Hawk.
“It’s fun to explore different emotions—like dramatic, comedic and the different genres as well,” she says. “It’s fun to do that kind of stuff, discovering different aspects of yourself.”
While not far from home distance-wise, Sadie gained even more appreciation for the experience of living on campus after hurricanes forced a monthlong return to her parents’ house. She couldn’t wait to be back at Eckerd with her new friends.
“I’ve met so many people, and everyone is so kind. People will just come up and say hello, and then we’ll exchange Snapchats, Instagram,” she says.
Sadie at Pass-a-Grille Beach earlier this fall
(Left to right) Kathy, Dorothy Borzsak ’99 and Megan during Megan’s college years
“It’s so nice being able to go to the beach or go on Kappa Field and lie in the sun while also studying theatre and learning from great professors … A lot of people wish they had this experience.”
Megan admits to hoping the meeting with Thonen and Hawk would sway Sadie toward Eckerd, a dream she has long had of keeping the family tradition going. Over 60 years, they have experienced celebrations and losses within and alongside the Eckerd community, which has come to feel like an extension of their family.
“I know Eckerd as a student, I know it as an alum, I know it as an employee, but experiencing it as a parent has been just extraordinary,” Megan says. “I’m so impressed with the high-touch education, the mentoring, the giving the kids the space to grow and learn.”
Kathy, for her part, remembers FPC/EC as a source of great mentors and faculty whom she both idolized and dined with in their homes—who encouraged her but also held her to an exacting standard. She and Sterling hope for Sadie to have those same experiences, though she says they have tried to avoid pressure and “be just interested and loving grandparents.”
“There’s none of this ‘big school, you’re a number’ stuff at Eckerd College,” Kathy says. “You put personalized together with high expectations and you have an environment for great things to happen.”
Next up, the Watsons hope: Sadie’s brother, Robert, a high school senior.
The Watson family tree includes Michael Watson ’68 and his former wife, Gale Cowden ’68; Sterling Watson ’69 and Kathy Watson ’69; Linda Watson Watkins ’72 and her late husband, Gerald Watkins ’70; their daughter, Lucy Watkins ’05; Gerald’s sister, Dawn Watkins ’68; Megan Watson Kramer ’98; and Sadie Kathryn Kramer ’28.
