CORRECTION APPENDED

On the Web site of Chicago’s Sue Duncan Childrens’ Center is a grainy reprinted photo of a group of boys and young men dated 1977. Of the group, one has become a brain surgeon, another is a top administrator in education, and a third is an Oscar-nominated actor. Three of the others pictured are now dead—victims of violence in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago’s South Side. And finally, one gangly child smiles into the camera with a basketball palmed in his adolescent hand. More than 30 years later, he is now at the helm of the United States Department of Education under the Obama administration.

That photo, taken decades ago, encapsulates the world that shaped Arne S. Duncan ’87, and the causes to which he has dedicated his life. [CORRECTION APPENDED]

A tough job awaits Duncan as he transitions to Washington from Chicago, where he served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools since 2001. During his tenure, CPS targeted perennial problems with student and family involvement by sponsoring initiatives with names like “Real Men Read” and “Don’t Drop Out.” Significant reform initiatives helped boost ACT scores, doubled the number of CPS students taking Advanced Placement exams, and opened over thirty new schools. In Washington, Duncan will have to take on education reform on a national scale.

STUDYING ON THE SOUTH SIDE

Before education became the focus of his career, Duncan’s life centered around basketball. Though Duncan grew up in Hyde Park, he spent much of his childhood on the South Side where he had the chance to play competitive street ball. “Education came later, basketball came first,” says Duncan’s younger brother Owen. “His real great dream was to become a professional basketball player. It was somewhere between devotion and obsession.”

Duncan’s passion for basketball coexisted with a commitment to education. Even at a young age, an indispensable part of Duncan’s life was tutoring and working at the children’s center named for and run by his mother, Sue Duncan.

Stephen M. Wilkins, a manager in the department of sports administration with CPS, knew Duncan well before working under the CEO. The two were raised one block away from each other in Hyde Park. “He grew up in the unlikely scenario,” says Wilkins, “of a kid from a solid middle class background going across the very real racial lines of Chicago to tutor kids eight blocks from where he lived.”

DRIVING THE LANE

After graduating from University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Duncan made the move to the east coast and began what would prove to be a difficult first year in Cambridge. Duncan brought his dual passions of sport and education. While at Harvard, he worked under the Phillips Brooks House Association and eventually became a director for Volunteers for Youth. His basketball career, however, got off to a rocky start. “What stands out in my memory is him not making the basketball team,” says Owen. “That was pretty devastating.” After being cut from the varsity squad his freshman fall, Duncan embarked on a campaign to bring his game to a new level. He became captain of the Junior Varsity team and devoted the following summer to training. “I rarely saw him so grim and determined,” Owen remembers, “as a younger brother I was watching him like ‘wow.’ I mean, he just played basketball all the time.”

Upon returning to Harvard the following fall, Duncan made the Varsity team and would eventually rise to become captain of the squad. Frank Mclaughlin, head basketball coach at the time, remembers Duncan’s ability to inspire his teammates. “He’s somebody, if you were a coach, you would definitely want on your team because the way he played made everybody else better.”

Throughout his long career on the team, playing alongside Harvard basketball greats such as leading-scorers Bob D. Ferry ’85 and Joe D. Carribino ’85, Duncan remained focused on the social issues that he witnessed growing up in Chicago. In 1986 he took a year off to return to his hometown to write his sociology thesis, eventually titled “The values, aspirations, and opportunities of the urban underclass.”

After Harvard, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia for four years. Though he never hit it big in the NBA as he had originally hoped, basketball nonetheless paved the way for Duncan’s later career. In 1981, John Rogers Jr., CEO of Ariel Capital Management and a former teammate of Duncan’s in a Chicago three-on-three basketball league, offered Duncan a job managing Ariel Community Academy, a charter school funded by the business. From there, Duncan went on to manage the Chicago city parks. He was eventually tapped to run CPS by Paul G. Vallas, then-CEO of the school system.

TAKING IT TO THE HOUSE

The people who knew Duncan in childhood and on the basketball court expect big things from the new education secretary, whom they remember as a goal-oriented and passionate leader. “I think any time you have basketball players in positions of leadership, it’s a good thing,” says Mclaughlin, laughing.

And basketball remains a part of Duncan’s life. He continues to play in three-on-three tournaments, and has shared a court with Obama. Now, as Duncan steps into his new role as Secretary of Education, he brings with him the leadership skills that proved equally effective on the court at Harvard and in one of the nation’s largest school systems.

SEE CORRECTION BELOW

The Feb. 11 magazine headline and article “Arnie S. Duncan ’87” incorrectly stated that the nominee for Secretary of Education graduated from Harvard College in 1987. In fact, he graduated from the College in 1986.

Arne S. Duncan '86