Discover our collection of Kilgore College yearbooks from Kilgore, Texas, now available in our archives. You can order copies for just $1.00 per page. Email us for easy ordering and payment instructions. We can copy any pages you need, and you can choose to pick them up or have them mailed to you.

Feel free to visit our archives to research the yearbooks. Just contact us via email or call (903) 592-5993 to schedule your visit and indicate your research topic. We’ll gather relevant materials to enhance your experience.

We are partnering with the East Texas Genealogical Society to index the yearbooks, which will be uploaded as they’re processed. If the year you seek isn’t listed, check back later. We also welcome donations of yearbooks and other Smith County-related items. Click here for more details on contributing to our collection.

History of Kilgore College

According to the brief history researched and written by Bonnie Durning and Doris Bolt, each a retired Kilgore College history instructor, W. L. Dodson, superintendent of the Kilgore Independent School District, urged the board to take the necessary steps to create a junior college; and they authorized him to bring in B. E. Masters, president of Amarillo Junior College, to assist in the actual implementation of the plan. Mr. Masters came in April of 1935 and met with the board of education. In August, the board formally named Mr. Dodson as president with Mr. Masters as dean. In order to begin classroom instruction by fall, all parties concerned agreed that the college should be operated by the Kilgore Independent School District and would temporarily utilize the public school facilities. Thus, Kilgore College opened in the fall of 1935 with 11 faculty members and 229 students.

In 1946, the Board of Trustees of the Kilgore Independent School District issued invitations to neighboring common and independent school districts, inviting them to join a union district for junior college purposes. Seven districts—Sabine, White Oak, Leverett’s Chapel, London, Overton, Gaston, and Gladewater—have since joined the Kilgore College District. The college district is now directed by a board of trustees of nine members elected by the individual districts. Kilgore College received recognition by the Southern Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges in 1936, and by 1940, had the largest enrollment of any public junior college in the South. In 1948, it was the second junior college in the nation in the number of transfers to senior colleges.