Hufstedler, Shirley Mount, 1925–2016, American jurist and U.S. secretary of education (1980–81), b. Denver, as Shirley Ann Mount, grad. Univ. of New Mexico (B.B.A. 1945) and Stanford Law School (LL.B. 1949). After pursuing a career in private law practice (1950–60) she became a county and state judge in California (1961–68) and a federal appeals court judge in Ninth Circuit (1968–80). In 1979, President Jimmy Carter named her the first secretary of education; the department was established the following year. After leaving the Education Dept., she returned to private practice and taught.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies
