Jule Sugarman

Jule Meyer Sugarman (September 23, 1927 – November 2, 2010) was a founder of Head Start who also led the program for its first five years.

Born in Cincinnati to Melville Sugarman, a jeweler, and Rachel Meyer, a nursery school teacher, Sugarman entered Western Reserve University (later to become Case Western Reserve University). His studies were cut short by World War II, in which he served in the United States Army as a staff supply sergeant in Japan. He completed his undergraduate degree in public administration at American University.

Sugarman worked at various positions in the United States Civil Service Commission starting in 1951. He worked in the Office of Management and Budget from 1957 to 1959, then worked for the United States Department of Justice in the Federal Bureau of Prisons until 1962, when he took a position with the Bureau of Inter-American Affairs at the United States Department of State.

Sugarman, described by Edward Zigler as an "administrative genius", served as the executive secretary of the 13-member planning panel that was commissioned by Lyndon Johnson to create Head Start as part of the War on Poverty. The team included specialists in education, pediatricians and psychologists who designed a program aimed at ending the cycle in which children become "inheritors of poverty's curse". Originally proposed as a summer program, Head Start quickly morphed into a year-long program. Sugarman took over as head of the program from Julius B. Richmond, the original holder of that post, when Richmond became ill.

...
Wikipedia