To the campus, Jeffrey Vitter is the university’s chancellor, a renowned computer scientist and leader, but to Jillian and Audrey, he’s just “Dad.”
“Seeing people recognize our dad is slightly weird, but it’s really exciting at the same time,” Audrey said on the back porch of the chancellor’s house before the Auburn football game. “I think we all knew it was his dream. When he came and visited and saw how much Ole Miss meant to the students and the faculty and community, I think it was really exciting for him, and he really fell in love with this place.”
Since they were young, Jillian and Audrey said their father has been an advocate of education.
“I can remember him taking us to school in the morning and asking us math questions in the car,” Audrey said.
Vitter would ask them brainteasers and tell them riddles, always challenging them to grow and to question things.
“They’ve always focused on curiosity and education,” Jillian said. “Talking about cool things that we’re learning about at the table, it was a good environment for encouraging us to pursue whatever we’re interested in.”
The Vitters moved often while growing up; they lived in several states as Jeff’s jobs took them from Rhode Island to North Carolina to Indiana to Texas and to Kansas. Jillian and Audrey said this made their family grow close.
“We have lots of fun memories of family trips,” Jillian said. “We got to go to some cool places. He’d be at work, and we’d all tag along. In the evenings, we’d all explore. It was good family time.”
The sisters, sitting on the porch side by side with their similar shades of red hair, smile and play off of one another as they talk about their father.
Audrey: “As people will learn, my dad loves food.”
Jillian: “That’s an understatement.”
Audrey: “That’s a drastic understatement. When I was really little, Jillian would let me bake cookies, and that was a really great honor. So, it was mostly us bonding in the kitchen. I’ll rephrase: we could only bake cookies when Papa wasn’t home.”
Jillian: “Otherwise he would eat them as fast as we baked them.”
Audrey: “We would take the cookies and hide them in objects and then hide them around the house.”
Jillian: “We’d take those oatmeal cylinders and put the cookies in bags and put the bags in the oatmeal cylinder and put it in the freezer. So it looked like oatmeal. But he was crafty. He would find them.”
All three siblings, Jillian, Audrey and Vitter’s son, Scott, went to Notre Dame. Audrey said though their father never pressured them to go to his alma mater, it was a place they associated with their childhood.
Now the children are grown and out of the house, but they say the family is still close.
Jillian is now working half-staff at a fellowship in New Orleans after just finishing her residency last June. She said New Orleans is nice because it’s only a short drive from Oxford and her family, but she doesn’t know if that’s where she’ll be long-term. After spending a year in France teaching English, she said it’s hard to stay in one place too long.
Audrey is working out of Wisconsin now, but as an internal consultant for General Electric, she has traveled to France, Budapest, Hungary and Brazil for work.
“She lives out of one check bag and one carry on,” Jillian said of Audrey.
Because Audrey is on the go so often, she considers the chancellor’s house to be her home, too.
“This is my home,” Audrey said. “I keep all of my other clothes here.”
Audrey said coming home to Ole Miss is always exciting because her parents stay so busy.
“Being on campus is weird now that I’m out of school; I feel old. But at the same time, it’s fun to see the excitement of Ole Miss people,” she said.
Jillian and Audrey have known for a long time that leading a university was one of their father’s goals.
“I think we all knew it was his dream … something he aspired to,” Audrey said. “When he came and visited and saw how much Ole Miss meant to the students and the faculty and community, I think it was really exciting for him, and he really fell in love with this place.”
Audrey said she thinks her father will bring the same values he instilled in them to the university and help it to grow.
“Growing up, our dad always told us to be curious. I think our dad will help Ole Miss ignite their curiosity, to bring innovative cures and ways of thinking and solving business needs,” Audrey said. “He’s a great supporter. He knows that everyone has great ideas and wants to make sure they’re heard.”
“He’s a great advocate, too,” Jillian said. “Once he identifies a need, he does whatever he can to find a solution and move things forward.”
Ultimately, however, Audrey said they just want their parents to be happy here.
“If he and our mom are happy, then we’re happy, too.”
