Don Wilmoth may be best known as a longtime principal at Iola Middle School, but athletics also played a big role in his life, according to Bill Shirley, who served as Wilmoths assistant principal and took over the job after Wilmoth retired in 1995.
Wilmoth died Sunday at the age of 85. Funeral services are scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Before he became principal in 1977, Wilmoth was a teacher and a coach at schools in Iola and Colony. He served as a football and basketball referee for the Kansas State High School Activities Association throughout his teaching career.
Prior to that, he played football for Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburg.
But go even further back, to Wilmoths youth, for one of his more entertaining sports stories, Shirley said. Wilmoth told him about playing baseball as a child at a country school, back when one teacher taught children of all ages from nearby farms.