Rod Paige, a Mississippi native, lifetime educator and the first Black person to serve as U.S. education secretary, died Tuesday at his home in Texas.

His family announced his death in a statement but did not share the cause. Paige was 92.

Paige’s career in education spanned departments and titles, from teacher to football coach to superintendent of the Houston Independent School District in Texas. In 2001, President George W. Bush tapped Paige to serve as the seventh secretary of education. 

Over the next four years, Paige led the rollout of Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated standardized testing and sanctions for schools that failed to meet benchmarks, aiming to close the academic gap between students from different backgrounds. The policy was modeled on Paige’s work in Houston. 

“Rod was a leader and a friend,” Bush said in a statement. “Unsatisfied with the status quo, he challenged what we called ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations.’ Rod worked hard to make sure that where a child was born didn’t determine whether they could succeed in school and beyond. He devoted his life to America’s young people and made a difference.”

The son of two educators, Roderick Raynor Paige was born in 1933 in Monticello, a small town in Lawrence County in south Mississippi. He received a bachelor’s degree from Jackson State University, and after a stint in the U.S. Navy and in high school and junior college coaching positions, he returned to the university as head coach.

He moved to Houston in the 1970s to serve as the head football coach and athletic director at Texas Southern University, but pivoted to the classroom in the 1980s. He went on to establish the university’s Center for Excellence in Urban Education and served as dean of the college of education from 1984 to 1994. 

In 1994, he was selected as superintendent of Houston Independent School District, which was then one of the largest school districts in the country. 

His work there — more rigorous standards for student outcomes, teacher incentive pay and an expanded charter school sector — led to higher student test scores and garnered the attention of Bush.

Paige would return to Jackson in 2016 to briefly serve as interim president of Jackson State University.

“I am a Jacksonian, and I am interested in JSU being the greatest it can be,” Paige said at the time. 

The university shared a statement Tuesday mourning Paige’s passing and underscoring his “enduring impact.” 

“Dr. Paige’s leadership, integrity, and belief in the power of learning left a lasting mark on every institution he touched,” said Jackson Mayor John Horhn in a statement. “The City of Jackson extends heartfelt condolences to his devoted wife, Stephanie, and to the Paige family. We are grateful for Dr. Paige’s legacy and for the example he set as a son of Mississippi.”