Remembering Former City Schools Chancellor Harold Levy

Former New York City Schools Chancellor Harold Levy died on Tuesday at age 65, after disclosing earlier this year that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

He ran the nation's largest school system from 2000-2002, and was remembered for creating a teaching fellowship, creating new specialized high schools and raising salaries for teachers. He also vastly expanded summer school.

Levy was a Wall Street lawyer and philanthropist who led a commission on the state of the city schools in the 1990s when he was a member of the New York State Board of Regents. His commission drew attention to leaking roofs, coal burning furnaces and dangerous scaffolding. Levy gave tours to elected officials and reporters. Outrage over the report eventually led to more state funding for school repairs.

Levy became the first non-educator appointed as chancellor, after former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani drove out Rudy Crew. He was direct, funny and fiercely passionate about education. Here's how he described the challenge in May of 2000.

"It's a critical moment in American history we're no longer worrying about the issues of foreign policy. We're able to maintain an economy of considerable ability. Now there's a shot at taking those resources and focusing on the most pressing issue and that's urban education."

That moment, before 9/11, seems really far away from the world we live in today. In 2001, WNYC lost its FM transmitter when the Twin Towers went down. Levy let the station broadcast temporarily on the Board of Education's FM station, WNYE.

Levy left the school system in 2002, following the election of Michael Bloomberg, who persuaded the state legislature to give him control over the city schools. But he stayed involved in education. He ran the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, where he worked to get more low-income students into college. Last April, he co-wrote a blunt New York Times editorial about the need to level the playing field in higher education.