Kathleen N. Straus
| Kathleen N. Straus | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Kathleen Nagler December 3, 1923 New York City, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Hunter College |
| Organization |
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| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) |
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| Children | 2 |
| Awards |
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Kathleen Nagler Straus (born December 3, 1923) is an activist who served as a member of the Michigan State Board of Education from 1993–2016. She has been continuously involved in civic organizations in Michigan since moving to Detroit in 1952 as a young mother. Her many volunteer and professional roles have included the Presidency of the League of Women Voters of Detroit, Executive Director of People and Responsible Organizations (PRO) for Detroit, President of the Michigan State Board of Education, and Secretary of the National Association of State Boards of Education.
Kathleen Nagler was born in Harlem, the daughter of an Austrian-born lawyer and a homemaker. Her family moved to Belle Harbor for four years when she was as a young child, but returned to Manhattan thereafter, and she grew up on the West Side. She graduated from Hunter College, worked as a teacher for a year, and then as an economist in the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington, DC, where she met her first husband, Everett Straus. They married in New York in 1948, where she was an analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In 1952, Straus was offered a job with a cigar manufacturer in Detroit, and so they relocated with their young son. She began volunteer work with the League of Women Voters, the Adlai Stevenson presidential campaign, and millage campaigns to meet people in her new city. Her second child, a daughter, was born a few years later.
Everett Straus died on Thanksgiving Day in 1967, when their children were aged 16 and 10. In May 2008, as the 85 year old President of the Michigan State Board of Education, she married the Honorable Walter Shapero, a 77 year old bankruptcy judge still working full-time.
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