|
Alonzo Aristotle Crim Comprehensive High School is named after Dr. Alonzo
Aristotle Crim, the first black Superintendent of Atlanta Public School. Dr.
Crim was first Superintendent of CPS (Compton Public Schools in Compton,
California) from 1969 - 1973 where from there he was elected superintendent of
Atlanta Public Schools on July 1, 1973. Dr. Crim served as the superintendent
until his retirement in 1988. He gave 15 year of dynamic service to the city of
Atlanta and improved APS education for the beter. He is credited for making an
urban education plan that "really works".
He helped launch a school magnet program such as the one for performing arts at
North Atlanta High School. He persuaded the school board to build Benjamin E.
Mays High School, which emphasizes science and technology. Also under Crim's
leadership, the school district launched a middle school program that served
both to restructure class periods and to ensure a mix of students. Upon
retirement in 1988, he accepted a teaching position at Georgia State University
in the newly established Benjamin E. Mays chair in urban educational leadership.
He also was an education professor at Spelman College. In 1988, Murphy High
School was renamed for Crim. He is the third living African-American to have a
school named in his honor. Benjamin E. Mays was the second. Dr.Crim, 71, was
killed in a three-car accident May 4, 2000 about three blocks from the high
school named for him after his retirement in 1988. Police said Crim was driving
in the wrong direction in a reversible lane on DeKalb Avenue about 12:20 a.m.
when he clipped one car, then collided with another. He died an hour later at
Grady Memorial Hospital.
|
|
