Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Friday, October 15, 1942

Educator Dies

James Hurst, Norfolk County Educator, Dies

School Superintendent Suffers Heart Stroke; Funeral Tomorrow

James Hurst, 63,superintendent of Norfolk County schools and prominent Tidewater Virginia educator, died yesterday morning at a local hospital less than an hour after he was stricken with a heart attack on Granby street.

Mr. Hurst suffered the stroke as he was passing the Norfolk & Western ticket office at 8:55 a. m. A passerby, Handsford T. Cruser, stopped to offer his assistance, and Mr. Hurst was taken into the ticket office and laid on a bench while a car was summoned to take him to the hospital. He died at 9:39 o’clock, shortly after admission to the hospital.

Superintendent of the county schools for a quarter of a century, Mr. Hurst was credited with modernization of the entire system. During his tenure, all the one-room schools in the county were eliminated and central school buildings were erected.

Widely know in educational circles throughout the section and State, Mr. Hurst was praised for his progressive administration and his qualities as an educator by his associates yesterday. Friends in the Norfolk and Portsmouth school system were shocked to learn of his death, and Superintendent H. A. Hunt, of Portsmouth City schools, asserted that “the State has lost a very efficient educator and the county a worth superintendent.”

Attended William and Mary

Mr. Hurst was born near Kilmarnock in Northumberland County, and attended the College of William and Mary, where Mr. Hunt and E. S. Brinkley, Norfolk Supervisor of high schools, were among his classmates.

Mr. Hurst came to Norfolk after graduation and embarked upon his career in the local school system. He was principal of the Chapel Street School here before becoming superintendent of Norfolk County schools, assuming that office on July 1, 1917, as successor to A. H. Foreman, present chairman of the Norfolk City School Board.

He was a member of Alpha Beta Kappa fraternity, and active in the affairs of the Masonic Lodge, being a past worshipful master of Ruth Lodge here. He was also a member of Norfolk United Royal Arch Chapter No. 1 Mr. Hurst also took a prominent part in the work of his church, Epworth Methodist, and had retired this year as chairman of its board of stewards. He was a member of the State Board of Education for a number of years. Mr. Hurst made his home at 614 Carolina avenue, Colonial Place.

Survivors include his wife Mrs. Bernice Pollard Hurst; four sisters, Mrs. S. C. Hall, Miss Grace Hurst, Mrs. John Kelley, of Northern Neck, and Mrs. Charles Hickerson, of Baltimore, and a brother, Carroll T. Hurst, of Northern Neck.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2 o’clock at the chapel of the H. D. Oliver Funeral Apartments, 1501 Colonial avenue The Rev. B. M. Persinger, D. D., pastor of Epworth Methodist Church, will be in charge, and burial will be in Forest Lawn Cemetery.