This is a list of United States Secretaries of Education in order of longevity. There are currently nine Secretaries on the list and eight living Secretaries. The list is in descending order and is correct as of June 3, 2024. The oldest Secretary is Shirley Hufstedler. She is currently 98 years, 284 days old.
To account for the different number of leap days within the life of each Secretary, two measures of longevity are given. The first is the number of whole years the Secretary lived, and the number of days past their last birthday. The second lists the total number of days lived by the Secretary.
List
edit| Rank |
Secretary |
Date of Birth |
Date of Death |
Longevity (Years, Days) |
Longevity (Days) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shirley Hufstedler | August 24, 1925 | Living | 98 years, 284 days | 36,078 days |
| 2 | Lauro Cavazos | January 4, 1927 | Living | 97 years, 151 days | 35,580 days |
| 3 | Richard Riley | January 2, 1933 | Living | 91 years, 153 days | 33,390 days |
| 4 | Rod Paige | June 17, 1933 | Living | 90 years, 352 days | 33,224 days |
| 5 | Terrel Bell | November 11, 1921 | June 22, 1996 | 74 years, 224 days | 27,252 days |
| 6 | Andrew L. Alexander | July 3, 1940 | Living | 83 years, 336 days | 30,651 days |
| 7 | William Bennett | July 31, 1943 | Living | 80 years, 308 days | 29,528 days |
| 8 | Margaret Spellings | November 30, 1957 | Living | 66 years, 186 days | 24,292 days |
| 9 | Arne Duncan | November 6, 1964 | Living | 59 years, 210 days | 21,759 days |
| Secretaries of Education | 9 |
|---|---|
| Living | 8 |
| Deceased | 1 |