Professor proclivity: HutchCC professors, the Newberrys, share their love story

By Jayshaun Jones
Social media coordinator

This being the week of Valentine’s Day, it’s fitting to tell the story of one of a Hutchinson Community College campus couple. 

Kim and Jesse Newberry are two professors at HutchCC. Kim Newberry is a sociology professor, while Jesse is a Computer Support Associate Professor/ Coordinator. 

But there’s more to these two than sociology and computers. Let’s dive into life with HutchCC’s power duo. 

First, to understand how their relationship works you have to know the story of how they met. “We kind of found each other on MySpace, which is like Facebook for old people,” Jesse said. “We also met through Match.com,” Kim said. “He had a profile and I had the barebones of one, you know, just enough so I can man shop.” 

The story gets even better. Kim tells the story from a Nov. 2008 meeting. 

“I went out to dinner with a friend and I looked at her and I said ‘oh my god,’ that’s the guy, that’s the guy I saw on the internet,” Kim said. 

Jesse was bartending at the restaurant Kim and her friend were dining at. Kim and her friend went up to the bar and had some drinks. Afterward, Kim slid into Jesse’s direct messages, and the rest is history. 

Being a couple that works in the same place is not the real reason they are a power duo. They rarely see each other at all at work. 

“We have to plan for when we can meet. Sometimes we will go on walks, or out to lunch or something,” Kim said. 

Their relationship stretches beyond that. They have a son, 9-year-old Jackson. He loves to play video games and pretend he is streaming, while wondering why he doesn’t have a YouTube channel. 

Other things that Jackson likes to do are watch “Star Wars” and other Disney movies with Jesse. 

Kim and Jesse also have activities that they like to do together as a couple that they didn’t think they would enjoy as much when they were single.

“Cooking … we cook together all the time, we meal prep, we love cooking together and I’m not the greatest cook but he is phenomenal,” Kim said.

Their favorite cuisine to cook together is Mexican food. This leans into Jesse’s favor, as he used to work in a Mexican restaurant in college.

The Newberrys also like to read books together, watch movies, and just hang out.

“Yeah, sometimes we will be looking for something to watch on TV, and we will just end sitting and doing nothing but just talking for like an hour,” Jesse said.

Whether they are teaching or cooking, the Newberrys consider themselves lucky to have found someone who loves them as much as they love each other.

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