UA president has wedding after meeting

TUSCALOOSA (AP) — After The University of Alabama board of trustees meeting, President Robert Witt had some personal business to attend to.

University spokeswoman Deborah Lane said Witt, 67, quietly slipped away after the board meeting Friday morning and married Sandee M. Kirby, 60, in a private ceremony attended by close family at Christ Episcopal Church.

"He very much wanted it to be a private family event, and that's what it was," Lane said Wednesday. "I think they understand his public role as university president, but it was nice that they got to celebrate the way they wanted to."

Kirby has worked for the university for 25 years. She is the assistant to the vice president for advancement and director of the President's Cabinet, an advisory group of alumni and donors. She also served on the presidential search committee that found Witt, who became president in 2003.

Lane said Kirby plans to retire in 2008 and that the two will split time between her house and the President's Mansion.

Witt and his former wife, Anne Witt, divorced in 2005. Kirby's previous husband, Jim R. Kirby, died in July 2004.

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