Each year the Nebraska ASCD Executive Board takes the opportunity to recognize an educator who demonstrates outstanding advocacy for education in Nebraska by presenting them with the Al Kilgore Award of Excellence. Dr. Alvah M. Kilgore was a native of Washington, D.C. who grew up in Cleveland. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Kent State University, where he was an All-Mid-American Conference offensive lineman for the Golden Flashes. Dr. Kilgore earned his doctorate in education at Syracuse University in 1976. He then moved his wife and six children to Nebraska where he had been a member of Teachers College. During his tenure, he was associate dean of Teachers College from 1990-1994 and associate vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1994-1997, when he returned full-time to the teaching faculty. He always said he wanted to retire doing what he did best, which was to teach. Dr. Kilgore was an amazing educator. “He was the best,” said Bob Egbert, professor of curriculum and instruction and the former Teachers College dean who hired Kilgore. “Of all the individual people I have known in the past 25 years, Al Kilgore had more impact than any of them. He really cared about teaching and his students."

Kilgore was named a fellow of the University of Nebraska Academy of Distinguished Teachers in 1998, a fitting honor for the author of the proposal to create the academy in 1996. He also served as Executive Director of Nebraska ASCD from September of 1982 to September of 1991. During those years, Dr. Kilgore led a group of educators who wanted to have an impact on the quality of curriculum and instruction. He was instrumental in the lives of many Nebraska educators who graduated with advanced degrees from UNL Teachers College.

On a personal note, Al Kilgore was not only a friend, a mentor, and a counselor but he was also my father. He died in May of 1999 and to this day, I still hear many stories of how my father impacted so many lives. My husband, Bob, and I took several classes from him while working on our master’s degree and we both still implement much of what we learned in the areas of curriculum and instruction. My father loved to teach and he taught teachers how to be better educators, to reach students. He was so passionate about what he believed education should look like and how teachers impact students that his passion and influence has been carried on throughout the past 13 years since he passed away in 1999.

(Written by Pat Kilgore-Meeker, Assistant Principal for Millard Public Schools at Kiewit Middle School)