Gene Geisert, whose eight years at the helm of Orleans Parish public schools were shaped in large part by his efforts to desegregate the schools, died Thursday. He was 92.
Geisert was appointed superintendent in 1971 as New Orleans public schools struggled to retain students and teachers during a period of white flight to the suburbs following federal integration orders in the late 1960s.
He also helped establish the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, a high school specializing in preprofessional arts training that has produced such famous performers as Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Harry Connick Jr. and Wendell Pierce.
Throughout his career as a teacher and administrator, which spanned from Wilmington, Delaware, to Queens, New York, Geisert gained a reputation as a fair but hard-nosed bargainer who put students' needs above all else.
"He was, quite simply, an outstanding individual and a consummate educator!” said Robert Brasco, the former program director at St. John’s University in Queens, where Geisert worked after leaving New Orleans.
Born July 22, 1927, in Toledo, Ohio, Geisert's first career was as a carpenter. But when the United States entered World War II, he enlisted in the Navy, working in the engine room of a ship that patrolled the Caribbean Sea.
After the war, Geisert studied at the University of Toledo, where he majored in business and education. He then became a biology teacher and worked full-time while pursuing his master's degree.
He rose through the ranks to become principal of a junior high school and then superintendent of public schools in 1963 in Alpena, Michigan, after earning a Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.
In 1967, he became head of the public school system in Wilmington. There, he managed multiple crises, including riots that erupted around the city as officials dealt with resistance to integration efforts.
In 1971 he moved to New Orleans, where efforts to desegregate public schools hadn't started in earnest, even though more than 15 years had passed since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional.
To rectify that, he carried out a plan in 1972 to assign hundreds of white and black teachers — altogether, about 18% of the district's teaching staff — to new schools, according to the Louisiana Historical Association.
In 1978, Geisert wrote in the publication "Educational Leadership" that when he took the reins of New Orleans' public schools, the system had 108,000 students, 70% of whom were black. Another 42,000 students attended private or parochial schools.
The school district was also broke and notoriously low-performing, he said.
Today, 91% of the district's students are people of color and 82% are considered economically disadvantaged, although school performance has increased over the decades, according to the organization New Schools for New Orleans.
"In 1971, the New Orleans press highlighted my selection as superintendent of schools with two editorial cartoons," Geisert wrote of his tenure. "One paper depicted me as the skipper of a storm-buffeted dinghy named Orleans Schools. The other paper's drawing was simply a desk marked with my name on which sat an oversized apple tagged ‘Old Problems,’” he continued. "The cartoons were appropriate."
Despite the obstacles, Geisert solidified his record of approaching difficult problems with creative solutions by recruiting teachers nationwide and from other countries, especially France.
He also worked to fix what he called a "downward spiral of pupil performance" by starting at the bottom, with early grades. He expanded kindergarten from half a day to a full day and began a large staff development program for elementary school teachers.
Later, he established a large curriculum improvement program in an effort to "completely overhaul" the city's high schools.
In 1980, he moved to New York to become chair of the doctoral division in the education department of St. John's University, a position he held for more than 30 years.
After he retired, he moved back to New Orleans in 2011 and married a former teacher and psychologist, Karen Walk. He spent much of his time as a volunteer at the National World War II Museum.
Besides his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Jean Geisert and Ann Geisert Becnel; a brother, Paul Geisert; a grandson; and great-granddaughters.
Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at Schoen Funeral Home, 3827 Canal St. A memorial service will follow at 12:30 p.m. Interment will be in Lake Lawn Park Cemetery.
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