Rod Paige, a former Houston ISD superintendent and U.S. Secretary of Education, died Tuesday morning at the age of 92.

Paige was the first Black secretary of education as well as the first school superintendent to serve in the role. He was appointed at the start of George W. Bush's first administration in 2001.

He was born on June 17, 1933, in segregated Monticello, Mississippi. Paige earned his bachelor's degree from Jackson State University and his master's and doctorate from Indiana University.

Paige served as the dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University in Houston until 1994. He was sworn in as a trustee and officer of the HISD Board of Education in 1990, eventually becoming the superintendent of HISD, one of the largest school districts in the country.

In 2001

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