Jule Meyer Sugarman (September 23, 1927 – November 2, 2010) was a founder of Head Start who also led the program for its first five years.Hevesi, Dennis
"Jule Sugarman, a Director and Architect of Head Start, Is Dead at 83"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', November 6, 2010. Accessed June 13, 2013.

Early life

Born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

to Melville Sugarman, a jeweler, and Rachel Meyer, a nursery school teacher, Sugarman entered Western Reserve University (later to become

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

). His studies were cut short by World War II, in which he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

as a staff supply sergeant in Japan. He completed his undergraduate degree in public administration at

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

Professional career

Sugarman worked at various positions in the

United States Civil Service Commission The United States Civil Service Commission was a government agency of the federal government of the United States and was created to select employees of federal government on merit rather than relationships. In 1979, it was dissolved as part of t ...

starting in 1951. He worked in the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

from 1957 to 1959, then worked for the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

in the

Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Justice that is responsible for the care, custody, and control of incarcerated individuals who have committed federal crimes; that i ...

until 1962, when he took a position with the

Bureau of Inter-American Affairs In the United States government, the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) is a part of the U.S. Department of State, charged with implementing U.S. foreign policy and promoting U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere, as well as advising ...

at the

United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other n ...

. Sugarman, described by

Edward Zigler Edward Frank Zigler (March 1, 1930 – February 7, 2019) was an American developmental psychologist and Sterling Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. In addition to his academic research on child development, he was best known as o ...

as an "administrative genius", served as the executive secretary of the 13-member planning panel that was commissioned by

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

to create Head Start as part of the

War on Poverty The war on poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national p ...

. The team included specialists in education, pediatricians and psychologists who designed a program aimed at ending the cycle in which children become "inheritors of poverty's curse". Originally proposed as a summer program, Head Start quickly morphed into a year-long program. Sugarman took over as head of the program from

Julius B. Richmond Julius Benjamin Richmond (September 26, 1916 – July 27, 2008) was an American pediatrician and public health administrator. He was a vice admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the United States Su ...

, the original holder of that post, when Richmond became ill. Following the advice of

Sargent Shriver Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. (November 9, 1915 – January 18, 2011) was an American diplomat, politician, and activist. As the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he was part of the Kennedy family. Shriver was the driving force behind the creation ...

of the

Office of Economic Opportunity The Office of Economic Opportunity was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislative agenda. It was established in 1964 as an i ...

"to write Head Start across this land so that no Congress or president will ever destroy it", Sugarman oversaw the immediate increase of enrollment in the program to more than double the projected number of participants, starting with 560,000 children in the first year versus a target of only 250,000. In subsequent years the program exceeded 700,000 participants. By the time of his death, Head Start was serving 900,000 children annually and had served 27 million children since its inception. During the

Carter administration Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. A Democrat from Georgia, Carter took office after defeating incumbent Republican President ...

, Sugarman served as vice chairman on the Civil Service Commission and in the

Office of Personnel Management An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duti ...

.Brown, Emma
"Jule Sugarman dies; Head Start founder was 83"
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', November 4, 2010. Accessed November 7, 2010. In 1992 Sugarman accepted the position of Interim executive director of the

Gray Panthers The Gray Panthers are a series of multi-generational local advocacy networks in the United States which confront ageism and many other social justice issues. The organization was formed by Maggie Kuhn in response to her forced retirement from the ...

, then on the brink of insolvency, to help the group reorganize its by-laws, its board of directors, and its fundraising.Sugarman, Jule. "Why Reorganize?" ''Gray Panther Network'', September 1992, p. 11.

Death

Sugarman died at age 83 of cancer on November 2, 2010, at his home in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. He was survived by his second wife Candace Sullivan, as well as three children and eight grandchildren. His first wife, Sheila Shanley Sugarman, had died in 1983, while a son Christopher Mel Sugarman had died in 2002.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sugarman, Jule 1927 births 2010 deaths American University School of Public Affairs alumni Deaths from cancer in Washington (state) Case Western Reserve University alumni People from Cincinnati People from Seattle United States Army soldiers