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[[left margin]] VINEYARD GAZETTE, MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MASS. [[/left margin]]

Rufus Shorter Dies in Boston Hospital
By MARY BRESLAUER

Rufus Burton Shorter, the much admired and widely respected superintendent of the Vineyard school system, died March 6, after battling a long illness. He was 60 years old. His family had kept a constant bedside vigil at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

He was a powerfully built, handsome man who enjoyed a large field of friends in his three years of Island living.

Mr. Shorter's education began in the Pennsylvania coal country, in small towns like Shepton and Port Carbon. His father was an auto mechanic who took pride in an athletically talented son who could have been a major league baseball player, but because of color barriers instead became first a social studies teacher, and then an administrator in the vast New York city school system.

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[[caption]] RUFUS B. SHORTER.  Alison Shaw photo credit [[/caption]]

The acceptance of the superintendent's job after a year's search by the Union school committee was, for Mr. Shorter and his family, a return to a simpler life left in Pennsylvania years before. In an interview with the Gazette on the eve of his first year as head of the school system, he said he and his wife Vera were small town people who relished a full circle return to quieter living.

He left the Pottsville high school in 1937 for Lincoln University where he graduated with a double major of history and political science. He went on to a master's degree program at Columbia University after finishing an Army tour as a master sergeant in Georgia, North Africa and Italy, in World War II.

With the war ended, Mr. Shorter went to Brooklyn as a teacher of social studies. He stayed with the public school system and as an administrator with increasing responsibilities, he was regularly singled out by his superiors to take on the difficult and delicate situations that arise in any urban setting. He disliked the description of "trouble shooter," but he acknowledged that as his frequent role in the New York city school system.

His incredible way of disarming adversaries with humor or deflecting barbs with aplomb was perhaps most evident in 1975, when he was appointed to a most controversial post. A suspended superintendent had successfully stopped the education of Community School district 1, and Rufus Shorter, then an assistant superintendent of personnnel, was asked to step in until the chaos subsided.
 
He was sent in to ease the conflict and the chairman of the district's advisory council on funded programs said he was the only man who could possibly accomplish that aim.

"He immediately becomes a lightening rod," Shirley Niebanck said at the time. "He's unruffled and like a lightening rod some of the tension passes through him to the ground."

Throughout his life and his school career which spanned 43 years, his wife Vera would tell you if Mr. Shorter wouldn't that he was a man who, thought too often caught in the middle because of position or because of race, produced an understanding between two enemies if there was no possible resolution.

Whatever he did, Mr. Shorter did it aggressively. On the tennis courts, he rushed the net; at home, he seemed to devour books and he took on controversial school issues such as regionalization with a soldier's fury.

Rufus Shorter was a winner and a man unaccustomed to losing a battle, whether it was an intellectual discussion or a school matter. It was because he came to his decisions and beliefs with careful thought that he was not a good loser on those few occasions when his argument did not prevail.

He was a vital man who championed for others. Most of all, he saw himself as an educator of children and he was an articulate spokesman for their rights:

"Children need to be treated as individuals and accorded respect, because they are human beings; they respond to respect even as you and I do," he told the Island faculty in September of 1976.

"You are all aware of the criticality of the self-fulfilling prophecy; if children are perceived as problems they will be problems; if they are perceived as capable of success they will succeed."

Rufus Shorter was a man who took command at every event. He did not shy away from center stage and indeed, there were times, even when he was embroiled in a school committee controversy, that he relished that position.

A charming man, with a quick humor and a fast, hearty laugh that broke the tension at any meeting, Mr. Shorter was adept at finding the light side of any issue. He did so not to make fun, but to remind others and himself that with patience and a sense of humor, there was a resolution to most problems.

Mr. Shorter was a difficult man to dislike and there were many who wanted to dislike him when they vehemently opposed the superintendent. But again and again, opponents went away commenting that they couldn't hold their anger against a man so likeable and open to suggestion.

He was not a man to vacillate in a position. When he encountered hard resentment against the regional high school officials wanted to enlarge, Mr. Shorter passionately endorsed the students and in so doing, derailed the forces against a huge school investment. The high school he worked so diligently to bolster both in spirit and in size has a new principal and a new addition to be opened this fall.

Each Islander will remember Rufus B. Shorter in a special way. Committeemen will recall his emotional commitment to the students of the alternative school of the high school. Those were the students, he said repeatedly, who most needed support and special attention. When the alternative school came under fierce attack, it was evident to some that without a financial and moral commitment to the school's disinterested and disenfranchised students, Rufus Shorter would leave his job.

Mr. Shorter brought to the position of superintendent and the Island a vitality and style which were refreshing and rewarding to all who knew him. He leaves a legacy in his tenure that the job can be done with great reflection and great flair.

Mr. Shorter served on many volunteer community boards here and in New York city. His presence was always felt at meetings of the Martha's Vineyard hospital and Martha's Vineyard Community Services, where he served as a director. He had the talent to dismiss the rhetoric and offer concrete motions for a vote. He was not a man who tolerated indecision in himself or others.

In New York, Mr. Shorter was a director of One Hundred Black Men Inc., of the New York Tennis Club, and of the National Conference of Christians and Jews for the New York region. In the late sixties, he was president of the Association of Assistant Administrative Directors, president of the New York Association of Black School Supervisors and Administrators, and was a member of the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officers.

Mr. Shorter's death came after a six month long struggle against great medical odds. In June of last year, he was felled in his office at the Ritter House in Tisbury by a massive stroke. Believed to be on his way to recovery after treatment at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, Mr. Shorter collapsed again late this fall.

He remained at the Boston medical center for several weeks. Tests revealed an inoperable brain tumor, but still Mr. Shorter fought both for his life and his vitality. It was his overall optimism that impressed doctors and friends alike, who hoped against hope that he could gain strength and reclaim better health.

He is survived by his wife, Vera Groves Shorter, and two daughters, Lynn, a poetess, of Cambridge and Beth Woodin, a dancer, who lives with her husband Peter in New York; and a sister, Mrs. Elaine Fox of Middle Island, N.Y.

A memorial service will be held at noon tomorrow at the Christ United Methodist Church in Vineyard Haven with the Rev. Dr. Leon R. Oliver officiating. In lieu of flowers the family has suggested that memorial gifts be sent to Nathan Mayhew Seminars, Box 1125, Vineyard Haven.

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