Fred M. Hechinger (July 7, 1920 – November 6, 1995) was a German-born American education editor at The New York Times from 1959 to 1990.

Life and career

Hechinger was born in 1920 in Nuremberg, Germany, the son of Lily (Niedermaier) and Dr. Julius Hechinger. His family was Jewish. He came to the U.S. in 1936. He earned his bachelor's degree at City College of New York, where he wrote for the student newspaper, The Campus. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, where he was a military intelligence officer posted at the War Office in London. He was discharged in 1946 with the rank of master sergeant. After the war, Hechinger was a student at University of London and then a foreign correspondent for the Overseas News Agency. He then became an education journalist, writing for The Times of London, The New York Herald Tribune (where he became education editor in 1950), and The Washington Post, as well as Harper's. He also spent three years in Bridgeport, Connecticut, as associate publisher and executive editor of the Bridgeport Sunday Herald. Hechinger spent the majority of his career at The New York Times, joining in 1959 and retiring in 1990. He was an education writer who also served at times on the paper's editorial board, as president of The New York Times Company Foundation, and a president of Times Neediest Cases Fund (from 1977 until his retirement). After retiring from the Times, Hechinger became senior adviser to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He was also a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute. He died on November 7, 1995, at the age of 75, of cardiac arrest, at his home on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Family

He married Grace Bernstein; they had two sons, Paul D. Hechinger and John E. Hechinger. His grandson is actor Fred Hechinger.

Legacy

The Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting was established by Education Writers Association. The Hechinger Report(Project of Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media) at Teachers College, Columbia University, was named for him after he served as a Teachers College trustee since 1992. The Fred M. Hechinger Education Journalism Award is awarded by the Columbia Journalism School. His papers are held at the Hoover Institution.

Awards

Works