A beloved Lincoln Unified School District music teacher is retiring after 36 years of serving Stockton students.
Paul Kimball, who taught choir at Lincoln High School, Sierra Middle School, and Tully C. Knoles School, has instilled a passion for music in his students for decades, according to those who have set foot in his classroom.
“I have always been a musician, kind of from birth and even before that,” Kimball, 61, said.
A native of Berkeley, Kimball played the French horn in the band and orchestra at Berkeley High School, sang in the choir and performed in plays. He moved to Stockton in the 1980s to attend University of the Pacific’s music conservatory, graduating in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in music education.
Kimball decided to stay in the city because he secured a job as a French horn player in the Stockton Symphony when he was a junior at Pacific. He also met his wife, one-time drama teacher and school principal Dominee Muller-Kimball, during this time.
The Berkeley native would go on to play in the Stockton Symphony for 27 years, as well as direct the Zion Chamber Orchestra and Stockton Civic Theatre musicians — all while helping his choral students at Lincoln Unified School District develop their musical talents.