GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) – Shirley Hufstedler, a former federal appellate court judge who served as the nation’s first education secretary, has died. She was 90.
Morrison & Foerster, the law firm Hufstedler worked at, said she died Wednesday at a hospital in Glendale, California. No cause was given.
Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet-level agency under President Jimmy Carter in 1980. Carter appointed Hufstedler secretary. Though her tenure was short lived after Carter lost the election to Ronald Reagan, Hufstedler defended the department against Reagan’s vows to dismantle it.
She said education deserved a place at the Cabinet table in part to bolster Americans’ knowledge of foreign languages and international affairs.
Before taking the education post, Hufstedler served on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She was among the first women to sit on a federal appeals court.