School History
Seventy-four years after Travis, Crockett and Bowie manned the battlements at the Alamo, a different kind of warrior made his appearance over the South Texas City of San Antonio. He rode on wings of wood and fabric.
In January 1910, on orders from Major General James Allen, Chief of the Army Signal Corps, Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois established a flying field at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Foulois arrived at the Fort with a Wright flyer, the only airplane in the air service.
In April 1911, three young Army officers joined Foulois fresh from Glenn Curtiss’ Flying School at San Diego. Among them was a thirty-year old lieutenant from London, England, George Edward Maurice Kelly. Kelly was born in 1879. Kelly immigrated to America in 1896 when he was 18 years old. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1904 and eventually received his citizenship in 1902 and gained a commission. Volunteering for duty in the Air Service, he trained briefly with Curtis and then joined Foulois at San Antonio. Lieutenant Kelly’s aviation career would be short lived. On May 10, 1911, he crashed his Curtiss Type-4 Pusher into the brush near Fort Sam Houston’s Drill Field. Lieutenant Kelly became the first American military aviator to die in the crash of a military aircraft. Six years later, one of the nation’s premier flying fields Kelly Field would bear the name of this brave young aviator.
Lieutenant Kelly’s death caused the Commander at Fort Sam Houston to call a halt to flying at the Post.
Kelly school, which was originally for the children of military families serving at the renamed Kelly Air Force Base, was started in 1953. It too was named after Lt. Kelly. In 1962 it became part of San Antonio Independent School District and was opened to the civilian community. Our mascot is the golden eagle.
Ten principals have served at the helm since opening in 1953.