A former Kate Griffin Junior High School football coach who touched the lives of Meridianites in the late 1940s and 1950s has died at the age of 90.

Paul Aust, 90, died last month at Woodside Hospice House in Pinellas Park, Fla.

A Mississippi native who played at Mississippi Delta (then Sunflower Junior College) and Delta State, Aust taught and coached at numerous stops including Kate Griffin more than a half century ago.

He moved to Florida in 1957 and retired in 1984 after 42 years as an educator — 24 of them at Dunedin Middle School.

Aust is survived by his wife of 62 years, Evelyn, two children and three grandchildren.

The family requests memorials in his name be made to The Hospice Foundation of the Florida Suncoast or the Alzheimer’s Association.