K-12 Philanthropy Pioneer Edward J. Meade Dies at 63
Edward J. Meade Jr., who directed K-12 education grantmaking at the Ford Foundation for more than two decades, died of cancer last month at the age of 63.
Mr. Meade led the foundation’s public education program from 1966 to 1977. He continued to oversee school and youth issues as a chief officer in Ford’s urban-poverty program until he retired in 1989.
In 1972, Mr. Meade edited “A Foundation Goes to School,’' a landmark report analyzing the lessons that Ford learned from its education grantmaking over the previous decade.
The death of Mr. Meade, who was widely regarded as the dean of K-12 education philanthropy, is a tremendous loss to the field, said Mary Leonard, the director of the Council on Foundations’ precollegiate group.
Mr. Meade was a founding member of the precollegiate group, an association of foundation officers interested in K-12 education that was established in 1980.
