Quick Facts
Biography
Shirley Ann Mount Hufstedler (August 24, 1925 – March 30, 2016) was an American lawyer and judge who served as the first United States Secretary of Education, under President Jimmy Carter. At the time of her secretarial appointment, she was the highest ranking woman in the federal judiciary.
Biography
Shirley Mount Hufstedler was born August 24, 1925 in Denver, Colorado. As a teenager she was befriended by famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle after her father built the Pyle house in Albuquerque. She attended the University of New Mexico (B.B.A. 1945) and Stanford Law School (LL.B. 1949).
Hufstedler had a distinguished career at the highest levels of legal and public service. She began in private practice in Los Angeles in 1950. From 1960 to 1961, she served as Special Legal Consultant to the Attorney General of California in the complex Colorado River litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1961, she was appointed Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, a position to which she was elected in 1962.
In 1966, she was appointed Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal. President Lyndon Johnson appointed her Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1968. She was not the first woman to serve on a federal Court of Appeals (the second after Florence Allen); but, for at least part of her tenure, she was the only woman serving among approximately 100 judges nationwide. She served on the Court of Appeals for eleven years before President Jimmy Carter appointed her to be the first U.S. Secretary of Education in 1979.
In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Hufstedler's name and picture.
In 1981, Hufstedler returned to private life, teaching and practicing law. She was a partner in the firm Hufstedler & Kaus, now merged into Morrison & Foerster. She was the recipient of 20 honorary doctoral degrees from American universities. She served on boards of trustees, governing boards and visiting committees for numerous foundations, institutions, corporations and universities.
Hufstedler was considered to be a candidate for the Supreme Court if a vacancy had occurred under the Jimmy Carter presidency. On March 30, 2016, Hufstedler died in Glendale, California, from cerebrovascular disease at the age of 90.
She is interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale).