Sterling McMurrin, a former U.S. commissioner of education and a longtime professor at the University of Utah, died April 6 from lung and heart ailments in St. George, Utah. He was 82.
Mr. McMurrin was appointed commissioner in 1961 by President Kennedy. In his federal post, Mr. McMurrin supported school desegregation and national initiatives for hiring women and minorities in education.
He joined the faculty of the University of Utah as a philosophy professor in 1948 and retired in 1978 as the dean of its graduate school.
