Herold Christian Hunt

Herold Christian Hunt (February 8, 1902 – October 17, 1976) was a Superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, bringing it out of an era of political patronage. He was the Charles W. Eliot Professor of Education at Harvard University, an expert in education from the 1930s through the 1970s, President of the American Association of School Administrators, chairman of the American Council on Education, served on the National Board of the Boy Scouts of America, and was awarded the Silver Buffalo in 1963 for his contributions to Scouting.

Hunt was a graduate of the University of Michigan class of 1923. While in college he wrote for the summer Michigan Daily. His love for journalism fostered a desire to understand and participate in every aspect of an operation, which would later affect his work in schools. He then became a high school history teacher and rapidly became a school principal and then superintendent in the Michigan public school system.

He taught in the Michigan public schools from 1923-1927. He earned his M.A. degree from Teacher's College of Columbia University. He became principal of the St. Johns, Michigan high school for four years. In 1931 he became superintendent of that district, and in 1934 superintendent of the Kalamazoo, Michigan school system. In 1937, at age 32, he became head of the New Rochelle, New York School system. He combined his background as a would-be Episcopalian minister with the "glad-handing techniques of a backwoods Congressman," Hunt began speaking tours, set propaganda bonfires in newspaper articles, addressed civic club meetings—did everything, in short, to arouse public interest and squeeze money from city and state legislatures.

He was Superintendent of the Kansas City, Missouri school system and President of the American Association of School Administrators from 1947-1948. While in Kansas City, he was known to fill in for vacationing Episcopalian ministers at the pulpit. In 1947, he was sought as Superintendent for the New York, San Francisco, and Chicago school systems. Chicago hired him as their first General Superintendent in charge of both operations and education in 1947. While in Chicago, he was credited with cleaning up a system rife with corruption. During the tenure of his predecessor, Superintendent William Johnson, the district was blacklisted by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Three days after the board unanimously confirmed Hunt as its new superintendent, the organization removed Chicago from its blacklist.

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