Max Rafferty
| Maxwell Lewis Rafferty, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| 22nd California Superintendent of Public Instruction | |
|
In office 1963–1971 |
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| Preceded by | Roy E. Simpson |
| Succeeded by | Wilson Riles |
| Personal details | |
| Born | New Orleans, Louisiana |
| Died | June 13, 1982 (aged 65) Near Troy, Alabama |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Frances Longman Rafferty (married 1944) |
| Relations | Sister Frances Rafferty |
| Children | Kathleen, Dennis, and Eileen Rafferty |
| Profession | Author and educator |
Maxwell Lewis Rafferty, Jr., known as Max Rafferty (May 1917 – June 13, 1982), was a writer, educator, and politician. The author of several best-selling books about education, Rafferty served two terms as California State Superintendent of Public Instruction and ran unsuccessfully in 1968 for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee, losing to the Democrat, Alan Cranston.
Rafferty was born to Maxwell Rafferty, Sr. (1886-1967), and the former DeEtta Frances Cox (c. 1892-1972) in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of two children, the other being the actress and pin-up girl Frances Rafferty, a co-star of the CBS television sitcom December Bride. Rafferty spent most of his childhood in Sioux City, Iowa, where his sister was born in 1922. The family relocated to California in 1931. In 1944, he married the former Frances Longman, and the couple had three children, Kathleen, Dennis, and Eileen.
Rafferty graduated in 1933 from Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, California. He earned his Bachelor of Arts (1938) and Master of Arts (1949) from the University of California, Los Angeles. He earned his and Ed.D. (1955) from the University of Southern California. While attending UCLA he was a member, and president, of the Sigma Pi fraternity chapter.
While an undergraduate at UCLA, Rafferty "took umbrage at many of the things" in the college newspaper, the Daily Bruin, "particularly the editorial page," editor Stanley Rubin recalled in 1970, "to the point of charging into the office and physically attacking me." In 1937 Rafferty wrote a letter to The Los Angeles Times in which he described The Bruin as "one of the most prejudiced newspapers on the Pacific Coast" and complained that the Bruin's "radicalism is not so funny if it keeps you from getting a job."
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