City Schools Name New Chief

The Ann Xrbor public school system ïas a new superintendent. Dr. E. Bruce McPherson of ■ Dhia, a father of four, will start his new ob here on June 30, succeeding Supt. N. Scott Westerman Jr., who has resigned. McPherson currently is associate superintendent for policy, planning and ievelopment for the Philadelphia school district. His contract with the Ann Arbor School District is for three years at an annual salary of $35,000. The school board here received 131 applications for the job and selected McPherson from six finalists. Asked in a phone interview today with The News if he planned any changes, McPherson said, "The evidence is clear that Ann Arbor has an outstanding school system but that not all have benefitted equally. I hope to develop the system so that all will receive an equal education. This will be my guiding principie." "I'm just delighted to have the opportunity to work with the Ann Arbor Board of Education and staff and I feel this is a rare privilege. There are few school districts like Ann Arbor that have its potential and outstanding personnel," he said. . McPherson will be making penodic visits to the city before he officially takes office in June. [ McPherson has four children; Robert, 12, James, 10, Mike, 8, and Anna, 2%. His wife Carolyn is a former teacher who is active in volunteer work and . tutoring children. Interested in all types of music, McPherson said that he enjoys everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Mozart. His other hobbies include gardening, golf, bowling, art and dramatics. , , "I -esepcially like attending plays and am looking forward to doing some more acting in my spare time," he said. McPherson has been in Philadelphia since 1969. He has been instrumental there in developing a new city-wide reading program which emphasized decentralized planning and accountability for pupil progress. Before going to Philadelphia, McPherson had been in Chicago where he combined studies for his PhD at the Umversity of Chicago with service on a university liaison comjnittee with the Chicago pubüc schools. ,.y. _ On this committee, he assisted in the creation of the Woodlawn Experimental School project serving the inner city neighborhood in which the university is located. For one year, he served as a full-time staff associate on the project before continuing his studies. While at Chicago, McPherson also served as a consultant to the Joliet, 111., I public schools a the U.S. Commission. on Ciyü Rights. His doctoral disseratioiT exainined__the__causes and consequences of teacher turnover in selected Chicago I schools. He also prepared a number of lesser papers and articles. Dr. Curtis Melnick, an area superintendent of the Chicago public schools, described McPherson as "the outstanding school man I have known in my 35 years as an administra tor ; he is bright, articúlate, indefatigable, and unflappable." León Finney, executive director of the Woodlawn Organization, an antipoverty agency, reported that he "could not imagine a better man than Bruce McPherson. He was genuinely concerned with the problems faced by black youth in the schools and manifested that concern to all the people in our organization. He manifested an extraordinary talent for community relations. He served as a volunteer secretary to our organization I and was always a steady influence I whenever the parents, teachers or university people disagreed, as they often did, sometimes very angrily." Bom in 1933 in Junction City, Kan., McPherson was reared in Rochester, N.Y. In 1955, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Rochester. He was a New York State Regents scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. As an undergraduate, his major interests were in fine arts, drama, and football. He was a Shakespearean actor and was selected for the Little All-America foot ball team. After graduation, he worked for one year as a business trainee for the Eastman Kodak Co. He was inducted into the Army, and remained for two years at Fort Benning, Ga. On his discharge in 1958, he turned to the field of education. He first served as a seventh grade English teacher in a suburban Rochester district. In his second year, he was promoted to principal of the school. He then moved to East Aurora, N. Y., to become a tenth grade English teacher. In his second year, he was promoted to assistant principal, and in his third year he became principal of East Aurora High School. During his years of teaching in New York, he was a John Jay Fellow at Colorado College and attended summer sessions at Michigan State University, Columbia University, and the University of Rochester. He was awarded a master's degree in education in 1964 by Rochester. Then he went to Chicago. McPherson was brought to the attention of the Ann Arbor board by several people not directly connected with Chicago or Philadelphia. Dean Luvern Cuningham of Ohio State University described MchPerson as "one of the ablest men in educational administration in the country today." Dr. Phillip Kearney of the State Board of Education in Lansing described McPherson as "the most qualified person I know, as well as a very fine human being." McPherson's brother is superintendent of schools in Princeton, N.J.