Fred M. Hechinger

Fred M. Hechinger (July 7, 1920 – November 6, 1995) was a German-born American education editor at The New York Times from 1959 to 1990.

Life and career Hechinger was born in 1920 in Nuremberg, Germany, the son of Lily (Niedermaier) and Dr. Julius Hechinger. His family was Jewish. He came to the U.S. in 1936. He earned his bachelor's degree at City College of New York, He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of master sergeant. He also spent three years in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as associate publisher and executive editor of the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. He died on November 7, 1995, at the age of 75, of cardiac arrest, at his home on Manhattan's Upper East Side. His grandson is actor Fred Hechinger.

Legacy The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting was established by Education Writers Association.

The Hechinger Report (a project of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media) at Teachers College, Columbia University, was named for him after he served as a Teachers College trustee since 1992.

The Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award is awarded by the Columbia Journalism School.

His papers are held at the Hoover Institution.

Awards 1989 George Polk Career Award 1980 Foreign Language Advocate Award, Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. 1952 James L. Fisher Award for Distinguished Service to Education 1950 George Polk Award, Education Reporting 1949 George Polk Award, Suburban Reporting

Works "About Education; A New Elitism Appears in Higher Education", The New York Times, Fred M. Hechinger, November 20, 1984 "The University's Neglected Task" , Address by Fred M. Hechinger, December 5, 1991 "Are Schools Better in Other Countries?", In defense of the American public school, Editor Arthur J. Newman, Transaction Publishers, 1978, "Sving Youth from Violence", Crossroads: the quest for contemporary rites of passage], Editors Louise Carus Mahdi, Nancy Geyer Christopher, Michael Meade, Open Court Publishing, 1996, "Textbooks and Education", Public education under criticism, Editors Cecil Winfield Scott, Clyde Milton Hill, Ayer Publishing, 1954, "Eight Weeks in America", The Magpie, June 1937, v. 21, n. 2., p. 12. An Adventure in Education: Connecticut Points the Way, Macmillan, 1956 The Big Red Schoolhouse Doubleday, 1959; Smith, Peter Publisher, Inc., January 1990, Teen-Age Tyranny Morrow, 1963 The New York Times Guide to New York City Private Schools, Simon & Schuster, 1968 Growing Up in America McGraw-Hill, 1975