Our Namesake

Kermit King Elementary School is named in honor of a longtime Paso Robles educator whose remarkable career in public education spanned 43 years.

Born on a farm in Indiana in 1900, Kermit King began teaching in 1920 in a one-room schoolhouse in Crosby, North Dakota. He moved to Paso Robles in 1937 and joined the local school system the following year, teaching mathematics and physical education.

King went on to become a school leader. In 1954, he was named vice principal of Glen Speck School, and in 1959 he became its principal. He retired in 1963 after 43 years in education.

More than three decades after his retirement, the Paso Robles School Board voted in 1996 to name the District’s next elementary school in his honor. Kermit King Elementary opened in 2001, when King was nearly 101 years old.

That meant King had the unusual opportunity not simply to see his name placed on a school, but to become part of its community.

He attended the school’s opening and returned regularly for special events, including its annual Frog Jog, PTA-sponsored Jog-A-Thon and birthday celebrations. Students and staff celebrated his 104th birthday at the school in 2004 with music, a slideshow about his life and a personalized quilt.

The relationships he built across generations were evident at the school’s opening. Founding Principal Paul Corso later recalled tracking down one of King’s former first-grade students and inviting him to attend the celebration. Within minutes of receiving the message, the former student called back and agreed to come—decades after sitting in King’s classroom.

King’s life also reflected a deep commitment to family and community. He and his wife, Dolly, whom he met while they were both educators in North Dakota, were married for 75 years. In reflecting on their life together, King emphasized forgiveness, communication and, above all, respect.

King died in 2006 at age 105. By then, students at the school bearing his name had come to know him not simply as a figure from Paso Robles history, but as a familiar guest who celebrated alongside them.

Today, Kermit King Elementary carries forward the name of an educator whose career stretched from a one-room schoolhouse in 1920 to a new generation of Paso Robles students more than 80 years later