A Dragon Slayer With a Smile: Recalling Education Trust Board Member Bob Sexton

A quiet fighter for education has passed from the scene. Robert F. Sexton, of Lexington, Ky., a board member of The Education Trust, died after a long battle with cancer.

As the longtime leader of the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, Bob brought his special blend of passion, persistence, and civility to the movement for better schools in Kentucky and nationwide.

Education Trust President Kati Haycock remembered Bob as a friend and hero, who taught her much about how to advocate effectively. “More than anyone else in America,” she said, “Bob and his band of Kentucky citizens exemplified Margaret Mead's adage about the power of a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens to change the world.”

Over more than three decades, Bob had a hand in a host of efforts to improve student learning from preschool through college. He helped found the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program, the Kentucky Center for Public Issues, the Commonwealth Institute for Teachers, and the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership.

The Louisville Courier-Journal just touched on Bob’s legacy when it dubbed him “the most significant figure in public education in Kentucky in the last half century.” In press reports, state political leaders credited him for the 1990 passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act.

“Our experience shows that the public doesn’t rise up to slay dragons easily,” he wrote in his 2004 book, Mobilizing Citizens for Better Schools. “Someone has to carry the flag—to organize, to synthesize, to strategize, to bring coherence, to keep the focus.” From the helm of the Prichard Committee, Bob Sexton took that as his mission. Children in Kentucky and beyond are the better for it.