Senate Bill sb2816

    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2816

    By Senator Lynn





    7-1964-06

  1                        Senate Resolution

  2         A resolution expressing regret at the death of

  3         James M. Kirton, respected educator in Volusia

  4         and Flagler Counties.

  5  

  6         WHEREAS, the Florida Senate expresses its deep regret

  7  in learning of the death of James M. Kirton, and

  8         WHEREAS, Mr. Kirton served for 12 years as principal of

  9  Seabreeze High School and for 2 years as deputy superintendent

10  of schools for Flagler County, and

11         WHEREAS, it is appropriate that the Florida Senate

12  commemorate the life of a beloved and effective educator who

13  for 30 years was a teacher, coach, and administrator in

14  Volusia County schools, NOW, THEREFORE,

15  

16  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

17  

18         That this legislative body does pause in its

19  deliberations to pay its respects to the late educator James

20  M. Kirton and that the Florida Senate in session assembled

21  does record this testimonial of esteem and bereavement:

22  

23                           IN MEMORIAM

24                         JAMES M. KIRTON

25         James M. Kirton was born June 20, 1944, into a family

26  that operated a dairy farm in Volusia County. He grew up

27  working side-by-side with his parents and siblings on the farm

28  and aspired to be a cowboy. However, his father, Myron,

29  insisted that young Jimmy go to college before deciding on an

30  occupation, and that led him to a lifetime vocation as a

31  teacher, coach, and administrator. James M. Kirton made many

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    Florida Senate - 2006        (NP)                      SR 2816
    7-1964-06




 1  admiring friends along the way, including T.K. Wetherell, a

 2  fellow football player and now president of Florida State

 3  University, who declared after his old friend's death that the

 4  two of them "literally were brothers." Another close friend,

 5  Jim Surratt, formerly the Volusia County Superintendent of

 6  Schools, said, "There's never been a person who's ever been an

 7  ideal cowboy better than Jimmy Kirton," and also commended his

 8  friend's sense of "honor and doing what a man is supposed to

 9  do."

10         In Mr. Kirton's long struggle against the cancer that

11  claimed him, he credited his wife Eva with inspiring him to

12  bounce back from surgery and keep fighting. Many of the

13  doctors who attended him were parents of his former students

14  at Seabreeze. Other former students include a cancer

15  researcher who, in a note, apologized to her beloved high

16  school principal for not finding a cure that would heal him.

17  In May 2005, James M. Kirton retired to the family land off

18  Tomoka Farms Road to concentrate on getting better. The 5

19  months before he died on October 10, 2005, were bittersweet

20  but were filled with optimism and humor. Another longtime

21  friend and former coaching colleague, Tony Melachrino, has

22  declared that "Jimmy" Kirton "never met a student he didn't

23  like; he loved them all." In response to that generous spirit,

24  many of those students called, wrote, and visited their former

25  coach and principal in his last days--a fitting tribute to a

26  life well lived.

27         BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution,

28  with the Seal of the Senate affixed, be transmitted to Mrs.

29  Eva Kirton, widow of James M. Kirton, as a tangible token of

30  the sentiments expressed herein and a lasting symbol of the

31  respect of the members of the Florida Senate.

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