The call came on Christmas Eve 1974, almost exactly nine months after Ralph and Marilyn Kerr, who were already raising two biological sons in Fairport, began the process of trying to adopt a child from overseas.
The Kerrs always found that nine-month time frame appropriate and perhaps a bit karmic, “Because that’s how long it takes to make a baby,” Ralph said with a smile.
Kim Pegula being held by her father Ralph Kerr, in a family photo.
(Photo: Provided by the Kerr family)
Informed that a 5-year-old Korean girl was available to adopt, the Kerrs could not believe their Christmas miracle. The whole family flew to New York City six days later, and there she was, the little girl from Seoul, wrapped in a winter jacket and carrying a bag that contained a pair of shoes, pretty much all she had in what to that point had not been a very pleasant life.
“She walked out and we were standing there, the boys and Ralph and I,” Marilyn Kerr recalled. “Somebody brings them over, and they said ‘Mr. and Mrs. Kerr, this is your daughter.’ They send you a child, and then they ask if you want the child. How can you say no to a child? So of course we said yes. It was overwhelming.”
Kim Kerr — we know her today as Kim Pegula — has almost no recollection of this. Her parents tell her the story, relayed to them by the adoption agency, of how her birth parents left her on a street corner in front of a police station. Apparently in those days, this is what some Korean parents did when they felt they couldn’t properly provide for a child, knowing that if they left them in a public place, they would be found and ultimately cared for.
Kim cannot recall being taken into the police station, she has no tangible recollection of her time at the orphanage, nor can she remember how she felt when she was told that she would be going to live with a family in a suburb outside Rochester, half a world away.
“They send you a child, and then they ask if you want the child. How can you say no to a child?”
Marilyn Kerr, Kim Pegula’s mother
“I don’t remember anything before I was five,” Kim said recently during a lengthy, exclusive interview at St. John Fisher College, where the NFL team she and her husband, Terry Pegula, now own was taking a break from practice. “I don’t have any bad memories, nothing traumatic at all that I can think of. I just know somebody with the agency flew with me, and my parents picked me up at JFK, and that was the beginning of my life, really.”
And what a life it has become.
From that street corner in Seoul to one of the most powerful women in professional sports as the co-owner of two major league franchises, and the Pegula Sports Entertainment empire.
As the co-owner of the Bills and Sabres, the two sports franchises that are helping to drive the revitalization of Buffalo, Kim is in position to effect real change, and she hasn’t wasted the opportunity, taking control of big projects and bringing them to fruition.
Video: Kim Pegula talks about growing up in Fairport
Kim Pegula on how she was adopted from an orphanage in South Korea into a family in the United States and the influence of her parents. Video by Jamie Germano.
Buffalo Bills co-owner Kim Pegula
(Photo: Jamie Germano/@jgermano1/staff photographer)
“Only in America,” her father, Ralph, says of his 46-year-old daughter, who is the very definition of the proverbial rags-to-riches story. She literally was wearing rag-like clothes when the Seoul police scooped her up, brought her into the station and fed her candy while they decided what to do with her.
Kim Pegula celebrates graduation.
(Photo: Provided by the Kerr family.)
And now she has riches beyond her wildest dreams, having married Pegula, a self-made businessman who started a small natural gas and oil drilling company in the early 1980s and sold it in 2010 for $4.7 billion, the seed money to begin his second career as a sports tycoon. The Pegulas have a net worth of $3.8 billion, according to Forbes.
Pegula Sports Entertainment owns the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, the Rochester Americans AHL hockey team, the Buffalo Bandits indoor lacrosse team, a country music recording studio and label based in Nashville called Black River Entertainment, and the HarborCenter complex in Buffalo. HarborCenter includes two hockey arenas, a hotel and a sports bar on one parcel of prime downtown Buffalo acreage across the street from First Niagara Center, where the Sabres and Bandits play.
“It’s a testament to everything that is right about society,” said Russ Brandon, who serves as president of both the Bills and Sabres. “What her parents did, and how she has persevered. She’s so bright and tremendously talented, but with all that being said, she’s a better person and it’s a credit to her parents and family. It’s a nice story.”
“What her parents did, and how she has persevered … It’s a testament to everything that is right about society.”
Russ Brandon, Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills president
Ralph and Marilyn Kerr were both born and raised in Canada, and when they came to America after getting married, Ralph — like his parents had in Canada — worked for the Salvation Army, taking a job as a youth counselor in Auburn. They later moved to Fairport and began to raise their two sons, Ralph Jr. and Gordon, while Ralph worked for Fairport BOCES.
One day, Ralph saw an article in the Rochester Times-Union, a newspaper clipping he still has somewhere, that described a couple from Fairport who were adopting a child from Korea. He and Marilyn talked it over and said, hey, why not us?
“We felt God had really blessed us with our two boys, and we were aware that there were children in other parts of the world that needed a home,” said Ralph.
When Kim joined the family, naturally she couldn’t speak English. Ralph and Marilyn thought about holding her out of kindergarten until the fall, but reconsidered and sent her to school within a month of her arrival. At Jefferson Avenue Elementary in Fairport, Kim was a quick study, and her parents said she was speaking the language within a couple of months.
Kim Pegula, bottom right, with her youth cheerleading team.
(Photo: Provided by the Kerr family)
From there, she ingrained herself into everyday Americana and lived what she describes as a wonderful childhood, though her parents did discover one odd trait.
“Anyone who knows me knows I love sweets, desserts, chocolate candy, anything like that, and I always have a stash in my desk drawer,” Kim said with a devious-child smile. “My parents told Terry that’s what I did when I came to the United States. They would find food in my closet, like in my shoe. I guess from an orphanage, not knowing when you were going to get food, I took it upon myself to save it for later. So I’d stash food, but I would never eat it, I’d just hide it, fruit or snacks, things like that.”
“I guess from an orphanage, not knowing when you were going to get food … I’d stash food, but I would never eat it, I’d just hide it.”
Kim Pegula
So it comes as no surprise that among Kim’s favorite places growing up in Fairport were Abbott’s Custard and Friendly’s Ice Cream, which were easily accessible because they were “bike-riding distance from my house.”
Kim was a youth football cheerleader, and she was reminded of this a few weeks ago when a volunteer at Bills training camp approached her and showed her a picture his wife had snapped of Kim during her cheerleading days.
A young Kim Pegula, center, carving pumpkins with her brothers.
(Photo: Provided by the Kerr family)
In high school, Kim continued as a cheerleader, was a flag girl in the marching band, and she played the bassoon in Fairport’s performance band after a failed attempt at clarinet.
Not once did she ever think about where she came from, or who her biological parents were. She has never looked for them.
“I had two great older brothers who took great care of me, we lived in a great neighborhood, had lots of friends and we’d play kick the can or go outdoor skating, go to village days, Wegmans, so it was a very community-oriented atmosphere that I grew up in,” she said. “My kids ask me, ‘Don’t you want to know who your real parents are?’ and I just say, ‘Why? I don’t have any real reason to. I had a great upbringing, great parents.’ “
Having lived away from Fairport for so long, she said returning for Bills training camp has been a blast as she has rekindled so many fond memories.
“I’ve been back a few times, but not for this many days, so I’ve been able to drive around and go back to where I grew up and I’ve missed it,” said Kim, who now lives with Terry and their three children in Boca Raton, Florida.
Terry Pegula, new owner of the Buffalo Bills, tosses a football in an empty Ralph Wilson Stadium.
(Photo: Jamie Germano/@jgermano1/, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The Kerrs moved to an area near Cortland prior to Kim’s senior year when her father, having achieved his doctorate at Syracuse University after years of night school, left BOCES and took a job as a school administrator. Kim was unfazed by the uprooting one year before graduating, which wouldn’t have happened, Ralph said, without her approval. She graduated from Dryden High School.
Fairport native Kim Pegula, co-owner of the Buffalo Bills, plays an active role in many facets of running the team.
(Photo: Jamie Germano/@jgermano1/ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
From there, Kim followed in her brothers’ footsteps and attended Houghton College, a Christian liberal arts school in the southwestern portion of the state, almost equidistant from Buffalo and Rochester.
“I thought I was going to be a broadcast journalist,” said Kim, who was on the right path until a happenstance meeting with Terry Pegula changed everything late in her senior year.
Kim and her roommate, Angie Posey, concocted a postgraduate plan of going off to Alaska to work in a fishing camp where Kim had heard there was lots of money to be made.
“I remember it had to do with fish, and I was thinking that it would smell,” Posey recalled via phone from her home in Virginia. “Kim always came up with the grandiose ideas and I would help her to execute it. I think it was more about having an adventure. Kim and I were both kind of free spirits.”
They needed cash for the journey, so they were going to spend the summer after graduation working in Olean and living at Kim’s parents’ cottage at nearby Rushford Lake.
“It just seemed like it was always meant to be.”
Kim Pegula
After lasting about three days as Electrolux vacuum cleaner salespersons, they went to fill out applications at the Old Library Restaurant. Terry and a few of his employees from his company, East Resources, were lunching there that afternoon.
“We went in there for a waitressing position, and they sat us back in the bar area, kind of quiet, and in that area there were men sitting there and one of them was Terry,” said Posey.
Kim and Terry struck up a conversation, and Terry gave Kim his business card and told her to give him a call if she was ever back in town.
Video: Kim Pegula explains how she and Terry met
Kim Pegula was looking for a summer job to fund an adventure to Alaska when she met Terry Pegula. Video by Jamie Germano.
She rang the following week and he wasn’t in the office, so she left a message and then basically forgot about him. She graduated a couple of weeks later, went back to Olean to interview at the local public television station when, out of the blue, Terry called. They went out a couple of times, and perhaps sensing something in the air, he said he had a job for her at East Resources if she was interested.
Buffalo Bills co-owner Kim Pegula.
(Photo: Jamie Germano/@jgermano1/, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
That was the end of the trip to Alaska.
“He said, ‘Hey, I can use somebody at East,’ but I think he made that up,” Kim said with a laugh. “He said, ‘I do investor relations and if you’ve got communication, if that’s your background, I don’t do that very well. I just know how to drill oil and gas wells, so maybe you can do that.’ I said, ‘OK, I’ll do that for now and wait to find out about the other job,’ and there came a point where I thought, ‘Hmmn, maybe I don’t want the other job.’ “
Kim handled a variety of tasks at East Resources, and one of her coups was landing Terry on the cover of American Express’ monthly magazine for a story about the fast-rising company, in which Terry said — back in 1992, mind you — that one of his dreams was to own a pro sports team.
Photos: Terry and Kim Pegula
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They dated for about a year before Terry went to the Kerrs’ house and asked Ralph for his daughter’s hand in marriage.
“He was old-fashioned, and we had a very good talk,” said Ralph, who admitted that he and Marilyn had reservations about their daughter marrying a man 18 years older than her, already divorced, with two children from that marriage.
“They of course gave me a speech, one about being involved with your boss, one about the age difference, divorced, stepchildren, all the things as a parent you don’t want your child to go through if they don’t have to,” Kim said. “Once they said their peace, I said, ‘OK, I understand,’ but it didn’t matter. After that, they never said a word about that.
“I had a clean slate, no baggage, always a positive outlook from growing up with my parents, a lot of self-confidence. So hey, ‘I’m divorced'; that’s fine. ‘I have kids.’ That’s OK. All that stuff, the age difference, I was just so young and naive, but in a good way, and to me, none of that stuff was a problem, it just seemed like it was always meant to be.”
Turns out she was right.
A fan holds a sign celebrating Terry and Kim Pegula during an NFL game on Sept. 14, 2014.
(Photo: Bill Wippert, AP)
The Pegulas, now married for 22 years, have three children of their own, and for most of their marriage, Kim’s primary duty was being a mother. It wasn’t until the children — Jessica (21), Kelly (19) and Matthew (16) — grew and became more self-sufficient that Kim began to dabble in the business. Once Terry sold East Resources and bought the Sabres, she was all in.
Owners of the Buffalo Bills, Terry and Kim Pegula, address the crowd before the team’s game against the Patriots on Oct. 12, 2014.
(Photo: Jamie Germano/@jgermano1/ / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
She likes to say that when they go to First Niagara Center and get off the elevator, “He goes left to the hockey department and I go right to marketing, content, media, PR, all that stuff. So we found our groove and found the things that we were better at.”
This is clearly evident in the Sabres’ game-day presentation, which she allocated additional funding for in the budget. What was once a mediocre arena experience is now fan-friendly with lights, lasers and video projections that creates an energetic atmosphere.
She also was the driving force behind the marvel that is HarborCenter. Terry’s original idea was to build a parking garage with two hockey rinks on top. Kim turned it into a multipurpose destination complex that will attract scores of visitors and help the city’s economy.
Next up are the Bills.
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When Ralph Wilson died in March 2014, the Bills were going to need a new owner because his wife, Mary, was not interested in carrying on and wanted to sell. Terry knew how much the team meant to western New York — not nearly as much as he thought originally, though — but there was no way he would get involved in the bidding unless Kim was going to play a major role.
“It meant the world to have Terry and Kim purchase the team.”
Bob Duffy, president, CEO of Rochester Business Alliance
“He said to me, ‘I can’t do this if you’re not on board,’ and I said I was on board,” Kim recalled. “He was still doing the oil and gas, he had the hockey team, and knowing this wouldn’t be something he could do on the side on his own, he said, ‘You need to help me, you need to be in on this as well or it’s not going to work; it’s too big for me to do on my own.’ “
“He will say I’m a little more fiscal than he is,” Kim laughed, admitting that the $1.4 billion purchase price (an NFL record) stopped her in her tracks, if only momentarily. “He has a few vices that he’ll spend on, but on the big purchases … he never says anything about anything I buy because it never compares to what he buys.”
With their October purchase of the Bills, the Pegulas have become the first family of Buffalo, widely trumpeted for saving the Bills from Jon Bon Jovi and his buddies from Toronto, or that multibillionaire presidential candidate named Donald Trump, or some other unknown entity who would pull up the stakes and move what is arguably western New York’s most prized possession.
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Video: Kim Pegula talks about the sale of the Bills
Kim Pegula discusses the business chemistry with her husband and $1.4 billion price tag for the Buffalo Bills.
They may have ruffled some feathers along the way in some business dealings — it’s impossible not to — but right now, they are as revered as billionaires could be.
“It meant the world to have Terry and Kim purchase the team,” said Bob Duffy, president and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance. “They have a solid track record of business success, a great reputation for integrity, and a great reputation for how they treat members of their organizations and how they invest in the community.”
A fan holds a sign thanking then-prospective Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula on Sept. 14, 2014.
(Photo: Bill Wippert, AP)
There is a strong belief that the Bills — as well as the Sabres, who at one time were potentially headed out of town before Rochester’s Tom Golisano saved them — will remain in the Pegula family, in Buffalo, for decades to come.
Kim is proud of what she and Terry have accomplished, but she has always felt this was something they were meant to do. She was taught long ago by her adoptive parents the importance of giving back, of doing the right thing. Their philanthropy is noteworthy not only for its size — for instance, $102 million to Terry’s alma mater, Penn State, to build a new ice hockey complex, and $12 million to Kim’s alma mater, Houghton, earmarked for upgrading athletic facilities — but also where it comes from, the heart.
“Both Terry and Kim are as humble people as I’ve been around.”
Rex Ryan, Buffalo Bills head coach
“Both Terry and Kim are as humble people as I’ve been around,” said the man they chose to coach the Bills, Rex Ryan. “Their concerns are always about the people; how you’re doing, how this person is doing, all that. That’s what they really concern themselves with. They do so many things behind the scenes it’s amazing.”
Kim’s life could have been so different, and she is convinced her tough start has helped shape the person she has become.
“Everything you do in life gets you to where you are now,” she said. “I would definitely say my beginnings and my in-betweens and everything else are how I am.”
As tears well in her eyes, and one cascades down her cheek, she said, “People ask me who are the big influences in my life, and it’s my parents. They didn’t have to adopt me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them.”
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Fans hold signs during a pre-game ceremony to announce new Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula, before an NFL game on Oct. 12, 2014.
(Photo: Frank Franklin II, AP)
The woman who was raised in Fairport has not forgotten where she’s from, and she hopes OneBuffalo — the catchphrase she and her staff came up with to celebrate the union of the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres under the Pegula family ownership banner — doesn’t offend her old neighbors.
Pegula Sports and Entertainment teamed up with Southern Tier Brewing Co. to produce OneBuffalo beer.
(Photo: Provided)
“I always feel bad because it doesn’t just mean Buffalo,” Kim Pegula said. “I’m not trying to exclude southern Ontario or Rochester. I hope they understand that it’s just a symbol. Obviously, with us owning the Amerks, we know Rochester is our extended family.”
It’s reasonable to believe that Rochester’s legion of Bills fans can forgive the OneBuffalo moniker. Regionalization efforts aside, they are, after all, the Buffalo Bills and Buffalo Sabres.
OneBuffalo is quite simply, as Kim said when the campaign was unveiled last fall, “A link between Bills fans, Sabres fans, and the city of Buffalo. We are all moving in the same direction: One Team; One Goal; One Community; One Family; One Buffalo. It is our goal to continue to contribute to the resurgence of western New York, and we are very optimistic about the future. We are proud to be able to play a role in our city’s redevelopment at a time when our community has never been closer together.”
Video: Kim Pegula discusses the origin of “OneBuffalo”
Kim Pegula talks about the origins of the OneBuffalo slogan and campaign and understanding the region’s connection to the Buffalo Bills. Video by Jamie Germano.
Buffalo, a Rust Belt city that has lost half its population from the first half of the 20th century to the second half, is coming back to life, and Kim Pegula is among those at the forefront.
“It is our goal to continue to contribute to the resurgence of western New York.”
Kim Pegula
“My view of it is that she and Terry are very much a team, and she is the boots on the ground when it comes to this stuff,” said Dottie Gallagher-Cohen, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, a privately funded economic development organization and regional chamber of commerce for Buffalo whose mission is growing private investment and jobs in the region. “She’s extremely sharp, knows what she wants, and is very clear about that. It’s very clear to me, with their engagement with our organization, they are very invested in the community by supporting our organization and economic development.”
Look no further than the sparkling HarborCenter in downtown Buffalo across the street from the home of the Sabres, First Niagara Center, in the same general neighborhood where someday there may be a new football stadium for the Bills.
“Terry always comes up with the big ideas, but then after that he’s out and he says, ‘OK, Kim, you finish it,’ ” Kim said. “We argue and I say he inspired it, and I brought it to fruition.”
Did she ever.
Terry Pegula and Kim Pegula, pose during HarborCenter groundbreaking ceremonies on April 13, 2013.
(Photo: Gary Wiepert, AP)
Shortly after the Pegulas bought the Sabres in 2011, Terry was looking at the surrounding property in the Canalside district by the Niagara River and wondered what else he could do to boost downtown.
Traffic starts to flow in front of HarborCenter, which opened Oct. 30, 2014, before a Buffalo Sabres hockey game.
(Photo: Gary Wiepert, AP)
He and close associate Cliff Benson conceptualized a hockey facility that would perhaps bring youth tournaments to Buffalo. Their idea was unique — two hockey rinks built atop a multilevel parking garage — but it didn’t make much sense to Kim.
“I knew what he really wanted to do wasn’t just a hockey rink,” Kim explained. “It was about the community, getting Buffalo to a place that people looked at, both people in the community as well as the outside, as a place of destination that was growing and forward thinking.”
So Kim rolled up her sleeves and presented a plan that included the rinks (one of which seats 1,800 fans and is home to Canisius College and the Sabres’ junior hockey program) and the parking garage, but also incorporated a 13,000-square foot two-level sports bar (complete with a 38-foot TV), a Tim Hortons coffee shop, nine locker rooms, state-of-the-art training facilities, space for four retail stores and an adjoining hotel.
Kim Pegula arrives before an NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and the New England Patriots at Ralph Wilson Stadium on Oct. 12, 2014.
(Photo: Mike Groll, AP)
“It was one of these snowball effects and it just made sense,” said Kim of the $172 million project that is now one of the jewels of downtown. “I think I’m more hands-on (than Terry), into the details, although I’ve been learning to let other people do their jobs. Sometimes I have difficulty letting go, as my kids will tell me.”
Perhaps, but Benson, for one, is glad she took control of the project. “Honestly, the only resemblance between what Terry and I were talking about and what Kim eventually produced is that there’s two rinks and a parking garage,” Benson told Buffalo Business First. “She took it and ran with it and she did a phenomenal job.”
Amid the creation of HarborCenter, Kim came to the realization that she and Terry needed an umbrella company to tie all of their holdings together, and that’s how Pegula Sports Entertainment was born, with Kim serving as president and chief executive officer.
PSE, which just last week moved into a new office complex in downtown Buffalo, owns the Bills and Sabres, the Rochester Americans’ AHL hockey team, the Buffalo Bandits’ NLL indoor lacrosse team, and Black River Entertainment, which is a country music recording studio and record label based in Nashville and run by Kim’s youngest brother, Gordon Kerr.
“From a business perspective, we could not be happier,” said Duffy, the former lieutenant governor of New York, regarding the impact the Pegulas have had not only on Buffalo, but also the region.
Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly and Bills co-owner Kim Pegula laugh just before announcing country music star Garth Brooks in Orchard Park on March 8, 2015.
(Photo: Gary Wiepert, AP)
“When you couple Governor Cuomo’s billion-dollar pledge to Buffalo, and what the Pegulas are doing in downtown Buffalo, it’s really impressive,” Duffy continued. “I’ve been a big fan of how they conduct themselves, the whole tone and tenor they set as owners and how important that is. They inspire confidence in other investors and other businesses because you see if they are investing that much of their money in construction and ownership, they must know something, so maybe we should do something. People are inspired.”
As Kim gets comfortable in her role as co-owner of the Bills, it bears watching what she will try to accomplish as one of the few women with power in the NFL.
She admitted to being a little apprehensive about her first few NFL owners’ meetings, being in a room with so many influential men and their gargantuan personalities, but she found out it wasn’t overwhelming at all, particularly when she saw other spouses and daughters there.
“There’s more women than you think, so from that standpoint I was surprised,” she said. “There’s not a threatening type of atmosphere in there, and the league does a lot of things for owners that make them feel comfortable and gets them involved, interacting with other owners. Everyone has been great, and I have not felt that intimidation that I thought I would.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, left, meets with Buffalo Bills owners Terry and Kim Pegula before a game in Detroit on Nov.24, 2014.
(Photo: Carlos Osorio, AP)
Upon buying the Bills, she was immediately asked to sit on the board of the NFL Foundation, a non-profit organization “dedicated to improving the health and safety of sports, youth football, and the communities in which we live,” a committee that is chaired by the daughter of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Charlotte.
“The most impressive thing is how she juggles everything, all the properties,” said Brandon, who also serves as president of PSE. “She’s very creative, all about togetherness within the structures of our organizations, which is the way I love to work.”
Beyond her involvement with NFL Foundation, Kim hasn’t given much thought to what else she wants to do at the league level, but it’s early in the game.
“It’s new to me, I’m just trying to learn, so I don’t have a specific agenda in my head. I feel like right now, as my kids are older and getting out of the house, I’m just starting on the work part of it. There are so many other roles I need to play right now rather than to have an agenda and do other things.”
MAIORANA@DemocratandChronicle.com
Sal Maiorana
(Photo: CARLOS ORTIZ/@cfortiz_dandc, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for the Democrat and Chronicle since 1990 and is now the longest-tenured day-to-day beat reporter in the team’s history. Sal is an avid, single-digit handicap golfer, and has authored 20 books including several chronicling the history of the Bills. He was a 2009 inductee into the media section of the Frontier Field Walk of Fame, one of Rochester’s highest media honors, and is a two-time winner of the Rochester Press-Radio Club Sports Writer of the Year award, 1993 and 2005.
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