Lawrence High principal Quentin Rials dies, school mourns alumnus leader

Lawrence High School lost more than a principal on Tuesday. Quentin Rials, the alumnus who returned to lead the Chesty Lions, died at age 49, and the district told parents, staff and families that he cared deeply about students, employees and the traditions that define the Lawrence campus.

Rials had been Lawrence High’s principal since 2023, but his ties to the building ran much deeper. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1995 and played on the Chesty Lions basketball team that won the Class 6A state championship that year. Before taking the top job, he served four years as an assistant principal at Lawrence High, worked two years as a learning coach at West Middle School and was interim principal there in the 2022-23 school year. The district later named him Lawrence High’s permanent principal in November 2023 after he had been interim principal at the school starting in June 2023.

His path back to Lawrence included law school, teaching and a serious medical crisis. Rials earned degrees from Baker University, Washburn University and the University of Kansas, then spent six years working as an attorney in private practice and for the state before returning to education. He also taught and coached in Fort Worth, Texas, for five years. In 2023, he suffered an ascending aortic aneurysm, underwent open-heart surgery, had a stroke during the procedure and spent nearly three months recovering. After he was named principal, Rials called Lawrence High his dream job and said the school was a special place where tradition helped bind people together. His family thanked the school community for the cards, notes, well wishes, prayers and visits they received during his recovery.

The Lawrence High School Alumni Association said it was “extremely saddened” by his death and described him as a “Chesty Lion to the core.” In May 2024, Rials told graduating seniors that their class “embodies care for all humankind” and carried “a spirit of advocacy for what is right and fair,” a message that many in Lawrence had come to see as part of his public identity. On Wednesday, the school calendar still lists early-release finals, yearbook pickup and graduation on the Lawrence High campus, underscoring how tightly the school’s daily life and its grief now overlap.