Norman Drachler; Detroit Schools Chief in ‘60s

Norman Drachler, 88, superintendent of Detroit schools during battles over integration in the 1960s. Drachler became a teacher in Detroit public schools in 1937, rising to superintendent in 1966. One of his first acts as superintendent was to appoint an African American to the post of assistant superintendent. Arthur Johnson, a former president of the Detroit NAACP, became the school system’s highest-ranking black official. Over the five years of Drachler’s tenure, the schools chief championed the integration of both the administration and the student body. He also favored a moratorium on buying textbooks that failed to offer positive images of minorities. Protest demonstrations over his efforts were common, and several school board members who supported the integration plan were recalled. But Drachler remained calm through the tensest situations. “He would take a puff or two on his pipe--which rarely left his hand, even when not lit--and helped cooler heads prevail,” the Detroit News wrote in its obituary. He resigned in 1971 to found the Institute for Educational Leadership, a private, nonprofit organization that develops leadership skills of educators. Born in what is now Ukraine, Drachler immigrated to Detroit with his family in 1929. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Wayne State University and a PhD in education from the University of Michigan. He lived in retirement in Phoenix. On Saturday of congestive heart failure at a Phoenix hospital.