Love Wins
During a time of civil unrest, Westminster became a safe haven for a couple defying the odds
by Autumn Thatcher (MSC '15)
Ann Sarver Merritt (’66) knew she had caught Anthony “Tony” Merritt’s (’64) attention. Both living on campus, Tony worked in the cafeteria while earning degrees in secondary education and physical education, and Ann was studying elementary education. Classes certainly overlapped, but it was their mealtime banter, when Ann went through the cafeteria line, that had Tony leaving his shifts unable to stop thinking about the willful redhead he loved to tease. It wasn’t long before Tony and Ann became Westminster royalty—voted the king and queen of Mardi Gras.
Tony and Ann were young and in love. The world was their oyster, but outside of Westminster’s campus, it often felt like it was them against the world. It was the beginning of the Civil Rights era. John F. Kennedy had been assassinated, and interracial relationships were far from widely accepted. Falling in love was complicated. Tony, a Black man from the East Coast and a veteran, relentlessly pursued his education no matter the obstacles that lay in his path. Ann, a white woman from a rural town in California, wanted to attend college away from home.
“We were always very cautious about where we went, being aware of what element might be there and whether we needed to protect ourselves,” Ann recalls. “That went on throughout our lives, not just in Salt Lake.”
Westminster, though, provided refuge.
“We were very well supported. I’m sure there were naysayers, but there were also people who were great encouragers and treated us with respect,” Ann says. “It was its own little haven.”
While students at Westminster, the pair got married by a justice of the peace in Park City, becoming one of the first interracial couples in the Salt Lake area to be married.
After graduating in 1964, Tony became the first Black public-school teacher in Salt Lake. The couple moved 11 times after leaving Salt Lake City—first to California and finally to Arizona, as Tony pivoted to car sales. He went on to open two successful dealerships.
Through their successes, the Merritts spent time volunteering and giving back to their community. They soon created a scholarship at Westminster to help single mothers—and eventually single fathers—earn their degrees.
“It was Tony’s idea to help single mothers,” Ann says. “That led to the establishment of Help Us Move In, to help homeless children become homeless no more. Help take care of others—that is what we learned at Westminster.”
The Merritt love story is an inspiring one. It’s filled with emotional ups and downs that make excellent plot points in the best of rom coms. And like any great love story, theirs has a heart-wrenching moment: Tony passed away too soon, leaving Ann to carry on their legacy. She has done so in earnest.
In addition to working with her nephew Carter Earle to publish I Would Not Be Denied, a memoir written by Tony documenting the first few decades of his life, Ann has also continued the couple’s philanthropic support through the scholarship they created at Westminster. She’s also involved as a board member for Help Us Move In, an organization that has helped over 80,000 children around the nation move out of homelessness. Hers is work driven by a desire to connect with and support one another to celebrate the shared human experience through difference—something Ann loved most about being a student at Westminster.
“I really met a lot of people from different backgrounds. It was an eye-opening experience: meeting people and giving them a chance, learning about what makes them tick and what their beliefs are,” Ann says. “And accepting all kinds of people into your life.”
Learn more: helpusmovein.org
About the Westminster Review
The Westminster Review is Westminster University’s bi-annual alumni magazine that is distributed to alumni and community members. Each issue aims to keep alumni updated on campus current events and highlights the accomplishments of current students, professors, and Westminster alum.
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