Virginia Trotter
American academic
Died when: 76 years 316 days (922 months)Star Sign: Sagittarius
Virginia Yapp Trotter (November 29, 1921 – October 11, 1998) was Assistant Secretary of Education from 1974 to 1977, under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.The position was included in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare at the time.
Trotter was the first woman to hold the U.S. government's highest education post, although the position did not become cabinet-level until 1979.
Trotter worked as a university administrator before and after serving as Assistant Secretary.As president of academic affairs at the University of Georgia, she intervened in 1981 to allow nine football players to pass a remedial English course, allowing them to play against Pittsburgh in the 1982 Sugar Bowl, which resulted in a scandal at the school.
