Senator Bill Ketron, Jr. is the elected state senator from Tennessee’s 13th Senate District, covering western Rutherford County and all of Maury, Marshall and Lincoln counties in middle Tennessee. He is the secretary for the Senate State and Local Government Committee, serves on the Senate Education Committee and Senate Government Operations Committee, and is a member of the Joint House-Senate Education Oversight Committee. He is also the floor leader for the Senate Republican Caucus. He was first elected in November 2002 and won re-election in 2006. Sen. Ketron and wife Theresa Bill is a lifelong Tennessean, born in 1953 in Kingsport, TN. Bill’s father, Bill Sr., moved the family to Murfreesboro eight years later, and they have lived there since. Bill is a 1971 graduate of Murfreesboro’s old Central High School and a 1976 graduate of Middle Tennessee State University with a B.S. degree in political science and history. He is a 1989 graduate of Leadership Rutherford, the year-long government and community education program of the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce. MTSU honored Bill in 1991 by naming him a distinguished alumnus of the university. Bill’s parents raised him to believe in public service. He started in the Boy Scouts as a child and earned the prestigious designation of Eagle Scout at 12 years old. He has spent most of the last 30 years engaged in public service in the Rutherford County community. ▪ Bill was a founding member of the Blue Raider Athletic Association, the fundraising and booster organization for MTSU Athletics. He served as BRAA’s first president in 1987 and is an active member today. ▪ Bill was elected to the Rutherford County Commission in 1990, and was re-elected in 1994. He chaired the Health and Education Committee for eight years and served on the commission’s Budget, Public Safety and Public Works committees. ▪ Bill has served as president of the Rutherford County Volunteer Fire Department since 1998. ▪ Bill is currently a board member of the Rutherford County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Bradley Academy Museum. In addition to his local community service, Bill served as state president of the Professional Insurance Agents of Tennessee in 1992-93. He was a 1979 charter member of the Murfreesboro chapter of the National Exchange Club, a national community service development organization, and served as the organization’s national president in 1995-96. He served as national president of the organization's Foundation for the Prevention of Child Abuse from 2001-2004. He is also a member of the National Rifle Association and National Right-To-Life. Bill received Legislator of the Year awards from the Tennessee Fire Fighters Association and the Tennessee Development District Association in 2005. Bill is the president of Universal International Insurance, an independent insurance agency on Church Street in Murfreesboro started by his father in 1969. He is a York Rite and a 32nd Degree Mason as well as a Shriner. He has been married to the former Theresa Fallaw for 22 years. They have one daughter, 15-year-old Kelsey, who one day wants to follow in her father’s political footsteps. Bill’s hobbies include boating, hunting, skiing and gardening. The Ketrons are members of First United Methodist Church in Murfreesboro.