Hurley led in education, broke barriers

Fredericka F. Hurley retired five times from Atlanta Public Schools.

She kept getting called out of retirement to “put out fires” in problem schools or fill in for sick principals.

“She dedicated her entire being to whatever she did,” daughter Dierdre Hurley said.

Phinroye Fredericka Flack Hurley, a ground-breaking and beloved Atlanta educator, mother of three and music lover, died Feb. 18. She was 97.

A memorial service will be held at 12 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at Atlanta’s Cosmopolitan AME Church, 170 Vine St. NW, where her minister-husband served two tenures as pastor.

Hurley was born July 10, 1920, in Richmond, Va., to the Rev. Phinn Roy Flack and Hattie Permilla Neal Flack.

Education was in her blood. Her mother was the dean of women at historically black Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., the alma mater of Ms. Hurley, her sister Permilla and their father. Sister Permilla was chair of Winston Salem State University’s Music Department, and a niece was a tenured professor at the University of Kentucky.

Hurley taught in North Carolina and Michigan before taking a job with APS, shortly after marrying the Rev. James Robert “J.R.” Hurley in 1947.

Carole Cash Stemley was one of her students in 1949.

“She was there a very short while, but long enough for us to fall in love with this lady,” Stemley said.

The students learned Hurley was being transferred to another school, and they “cried” and “just went crazy.”

“That was the kind of presence that she had,” Stemley said. “She had a maternal presence – full of compassion but firm.”

The two struck back up their friendship about 15 years later when Hurley was a speaker at Stemley’s church. They stayed dear friends.

“We’ve been very, very close,” she said.

Hurley began her career in education in the classroom as a mathematics teacher, later becoming a school counselor and then principal of four schools.

While working as a counselor at Henry McNeal Turner High, she helped students Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes become the first African-American students to enroll as undergraduates at the University of Georgia.

She followed the two through their careers at UGA, something noted in Hunter-Gault’s autobiography, “In My Place.”

Hurley was the principal of George Towns and West Manor Elementary Schools before breaking through a racial barrier herself. With her appointment as principal of Bass High, she became the first female and first African American to lead an integrated Atlanta high school.

She retired from Bass High in 1982, only to be repeatedly called out of retirement to temporarily take charge as interim principal at five schools, daughter Dierdre said.

In late 1987, at age 66, Hurley agreed to head up an administrative team at troubled Therrell High. The school had a bad reputation. Students regularly were disrupting classes and fighting. The hallways were mayhem. And one student had recently been shot in the leg.

Within six months, the school turn-around efforts at Therrell were deemed a success, with much of the credit going to Hurley.

“We took a chance on her,” Ronald Lewis, associate superintendent for educational operations, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1988. “Best chance we ever took!”

Later, in retirement, Hurley acted as the district coordinator for A Better Chance, an organization that specializes in giving “academically talented youth of color access to rigorous and prestigious educational opportunities.”

While a student at Livingstone, Hurley played on the women’s basketball team, pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, sang in the choir and was crowned “Miss Livingstone.”

She received her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. She was offered a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music in New York City. But her father would not allow her to move in the Big Apple, family said.

She maintained a lifelong love of music, which she expressed by singing in choirs, including the Senior Choir/Choir No. 1 of the Cosmopolitan A.M.E. Church, the Retirees Choir at Friendship Baptist Church and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Choir.

Ms. Hurley also was a member of the Metropolitan Atlanta Musicians Association (M.A.M.A.) and the National Association of Negro Musicians (N.A.N.M.).

A scholarship has been set up in her name by M.A.M.A., her daughter said.

Dierdre Hurley said she’ll remember her mother as someone who was passionate about all her undertakings.

“She was dedicated to education. She was dedicated to providing interesting meals. She was dedicated to making beautiful dresses when I was a little girl,” she said.

Hurley is survived by her children, James Jr., Dierdre and Bianca; her “adopted” son William David Arnold; her “adopted” daughter Carole Cash Stemley; and other relatives and friends.