William J. Leary

In 1972, Leary was appointed to a three-year term as superintendent of the Boston Public Schools.^[1] In 1974, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ordered desegregation busing to racially integrate the school district. Leary insisted on fully complying with Garrity's orders, which resulted in him losing the support of the school committee.^[5] On April 29, 1975, the school committee voted 3-2 not to renew Leary's contract.^[6]

After leaving Boston Public Schools, Leary was hired as a visiting professor of education at Suffolk University and executive director of the Metropolitan Planning Project, a group of 52 Greater Boston school systems set up to promote racial integration.^[7][8] He then served superintendent of schools in Rockville Centre, New York (1977–1982), Babylon, New York, from (1982–1984), and Broward County, Florida (1984–1988). After working as an educational consultant in Minnesota, Leary returned to Massachusetts as superintendent of Gloucester Public Schools in 1989.^[9]

From 1993 to 1998, Leary was the chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Psychology at the University of Mississippi. He then worked at Lynn University where he was the Director of the Educational Leadership program before he became the school's first ever Professor Emeritus. He was also an associate in education the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an adjunct professor at Salem State College, C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and Florida International University.

Leary spent his later years in Boca Raton, Florida. He died on May 19, 2018, at the age of 86.^[2] He was survived by his wife of 57 years JoAnn Leary (nee Parodi) and their three daughters.^[4] He is buried in the South Florida National Cemetery.