Fred M. Hechinger

Fred M. Hechinger (July 7, 1920 Nuremberg, Germany - November 6, 1995 Manhattan) was an education editor at The New York Times from 1959 to 1990.

Life
He came to the U.S. in 1936. He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School, in 1937. He completed his bachelor's degree at City College of New York. He served in the U.S. Army, during World War II. He was a foreign correspondent, for the Overseas News Agency. He was an education writer for The Times of London, The New York Herald Tribune, The Washington Post and Harper's. In 1950, he became education editor at The Herald Tribune.

He was a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, and Senior Advisor to the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Family
He married Grace Bernstein; they had two sons, Paul D. Hechinger, John E. Hechinger.

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

The Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media at Teachers College, Columbia University, was named for him.

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, ISBN 978-0-87073-999-6
 * "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, ISBN 978-0-8126-9190-0
 * "Textbooks and Education", Public education under criticism, Editors Cecil Winfield Scott, Clyde Milton Hill, Ayer Publishing, 1954, ISBN 978-0-8369-2520-3
 * "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, ISBN 978-0-8446-1229-4
 * 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