Kenny Guinn started out as the son of migrant Arkansas farm workers. He graduated from Exeter High and went to college, playing football and graduating from Fresno State. He taught at Redwood High in Visalia where he also coached football. Guinn became a school administrator, then School Superintendent in Las Vegas. That was followed by a successful business and banking career. In 1999 he was elected to his first term as Nevada Governor. Kermit Roberts was among the many Exeter folks Guinn invited to his inauguration. "Everybody that lived with him out in the country was there, all in Tux and everything. It was really something else."
Guinn also held the Exeter High School 50 year reunion at the Governor's Mansion. Guinn served two terms as Governor until 2007. He was a moderate Republican, who battled his own party to raise taxes for education. In defending his billion dollar tax hike he said ... "It's true education costs money. But so does ignorance." His older brother Chuck says Kenny figured out the value of education, early on. "We were working for P.M. Porter out of Lindsay and we're in a ditch, it's 110 degrees, never will forget, Kenny looked up and wiped the sweat off his brow and he said, 'I don't know about you Chuck, but I just decided to go to college."
Kenny Guinn was 73. He died one week ago from injuries suffered when he fell from the roof of his Las Vegas home, while doing some repair work. He's survived by his wife of 54 years, Dema, and two sons, and a hometown that loves him.
Georgine Jones knew him since grammar school. "He was fun. He was just, you can't imagine what a great guy he was. "
His brother Chuck said, "He never forgot where he came from. He always said Exeter was his home."
