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Honoring a servant of Salem City Schools and the entire community

Salem City School District Treasurer and Kirkland’s close friend Mike Douglas said being able to work with Sean every day for the last nine years had been a privilege. Douglas said that Kirkland was the type of person who did nothing quietly, and that “he showed up to everything loudly and fully.” He said that as he watches the district’s new K-8 school building rise day-by-day he is reminded how much it meant to Kirkland to build something special for generations of Salem Quakers to come and promised the district’s administrative team and board of education would “see through what [Kirkland] started,” and Kirkland’s “passion, dreams, and fingerprints will always be part of that school.

More than 100 family members, friends, colleagues, classmates and students past and present packed the Salem High School Auditorium Saturday for a memorial service celebrating the life and memory of Sean Kirkland. Everyone in attendance was asked to wear red and black in Kirkland’s memory. Kirkland passed March 16 after a year-long battle with cancer and had served as the superintendent of the district since Aug. 1, 2019. Prior to being named superintendent, Kirkland served as Salem High School Principal for five years, and as Junior High Principal for eight years. For over three decades, he dutifully served the Salem City School District as teacher, coach, principal, and ultimately superintendent. Kirkland was described by those who knew him as a devoted husband and father, beloved son and brother, a treasured friend, a mentor, a leader, a force of life and kindness, and a true servant of the Salem Community.(Photos by Morgaan Ahart)

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