David T. Kearns, a former chief executive officer of the Xerox Corp. who became the deputy U.S. secretary of education during President George H.W. Bush’s presidency, died Feb. 25 in Stuart, Fla. He was 80 and had cancer.
Mr. Kearns, who served as Xerox’s CEO from 1982 until 1990, was an advocate for strengthening the link between K-12 education and business and global competitiveness. He served as the U.S. Department of Education’s No. 2 official in 1991 and 1992 under Secretary Lamar Alexander, who is now a U.S. senator from Tennessee.
A proponent of choice in education, Mr. Kearns was elected in 1993 to lead the New American Schools Development Corp., a nonprofit entity launched by business leaders in 1993 to create new school improvement models.
From 1993 to 1995, he was a senior fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
