Deceased Name: Harold Key , longtime Arlington educator
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX) - November 16, 1995

Author/Byline: JESSAMY BROWN, Star-Telegram WriterEdition: FINAL AMSection: METROPage: 25

ARLINGTON - Harold W. Key , whose 44-year career in education prompted Arlington school officials to name an elementary school in his honor, died yesterday. He was 89.

Mr. Key , a teacher and administrator who worked 19 years in Arlington schools before retiring in 1972, also served 16 years on the city's housing authority, serving as the first board chairman, records show.

"He had dedicated his whole life to education," said Lucy Key , 84, his widow. "His main purpose in teaching was for the benefit of the students, who were learning to live."

Mr. Key earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's degree in chemistry and education from Texas Christian University. Early in his career, he taught math, physics and chemistry and served as a principal and superintendent in Whitewright and Pilot Point. He also taught in Ida, Graham and Mineral Wells before moving in 1953 to Arlington High School, where he taught math for two years.

Mr. Key was promoted to vice principal in 1955, a position he held until 1963 when he was named the first principal of Sam Houston High School, which was then on Browning Drive at the current site of Hutcheson Junior High School, district records show.

Former Sam Houston High School student Lester Green, who was student body vice president as a senior in 1970, said that Key was on a first-name basis with some students. Mr. Key was an approachable, visible principal, who would often be seen walking in the hallways, Green said.

"He wasn't a military man standing there directing traffic. He was just always out there in a manner that would invite people to participate," said Green, 43.

In 1975, when a new school opened in Dalworthington Gardens, officials named it after Mr. Key and his wife, who taught for 21 years at Berry Elementary School.

Yesterday, students at Key Elementary School, where a portrait of the couple hangs in the front hallway, held a moment of silence in memory of their campus' namesake, Principal Susan Fry said.

Mr. Key donated his body to Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, relatives said.

Memorial service: 4 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church of Arlington, 313 N. Center St.

Survivors: Wife Lucy Key of Arlington; sons Harold Key Jr., of Grapevine and Charlie Key of Arlington; sister Dorothy Key Cannon of Sherman; grandchildren Jonathan Key of Arlington and Leigh Ellen Key of Houston; and several nieces and nephews.

Memorials: Great Southwest Rotary Club's Harold Key Scholarship Endowment, Box 931, Arlington 76010.

Thanks, Krystal Londo Kelley (#46843087)