Rod Paige, a Mississippi native who served as U.S. secretary of education under President George W. Bush, has passed away at the age of 92.

Paige died Tuesday morning at his home with his wife, Stephanie, at his side, per a statement from his family.

Paige was born in Monticello in 1933 and was the son of a pair of public-school educators. He took that inherited belief in the public education system and became a teacher and coach after attaining his undergraduate degree from Jackson State University and serving in the Navy.

His first jobs in education came at Hinds Agricultural High School and Utica Junior College – now Hinds Community College – where he taught health and physical education and coached from 1957-63. He was then hired as the head football coach at his alma mater, coachin

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