Cecil Hardesty; Ex-Montebello, San Diego Schools Chief Led Florida Integration Effort

Cecil D. Hardesty, 92, former San Diego County school superintendent who later led integration efforts in Jacksonville, Fla., schools. Hardesty was born near Kensington, Kan., and left school at 13 to work on the family farm. After a year, he persuaded his father to allow him to return to school. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Kansas Wesleyan University and a master’s and doctorate from USC. Hardesty was superintendent of several California school districts, including Montebello’s and San Jose’s, before becoming chief of San Diego County schools, a post he held from 1950 to 1968. In 1962 he ran unsuccessfully for state superintendent of public instruction, losing to Max Rafferty. In 1969 Hardesty became superintendent of schools in Jacksonville, which received a court desegregation order shortly after his appointment. He supervised efforts to integrate the faculty and closed seven inner-city black schools, busing their students to white campuses. He was a past president of the National Assn. of County Superintendents of Schools, the California Assn. of School Administrators and the California Assn. of County Superintendents of Schools. He was honored by the American Assn. of School Administrators in 1987. On Wednesday in Jacksonville.