1. The author of several best-selling books about education, Rafferty served two terms as California State Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1963 to 1971 under Governors Pat Brown and later eventual future US President Ronald Reagan and ran unsuccessfully in 1968 for the US Senate as the Republican nominee, losing to Democratic former State Controller Alan Cranston.
Max Rafferty spent most of his childhood in Sioux City, Iowa, where his sister was born in 1922.
Max Rafferty earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Max Rafferty was the superintendent at Saticoy, Needles, and La Canada, a prosperous northeast Los Angeles suburb.
Max Rafferty ran as a conservative while Kuchel was a moderate.
Two years later, in 1970, Max Rafferty failed in his bid for a third term as Superintendent of Public Instruction, losing to Wilson Riles, the first African-American to be elected to statewide office in California and a Democrat in the nonpartisan race.
Max Rafferty received the George Washington Honor Medal from the Freedoms Foundation.
Max Rafferty's books Suffer, Little Children and What They Are Doing to Your Children attacked progressive education and urged a "return to the fundamentals" in education.
Max Rafferty threatened to revoke the teaching certificate of any teacher who used such works.
Max Rafferty attempted to get the Dictionary of American Slang removed from school libraries.
Max Rafferty was active in the Lions Club and Rotary International.
Max Rafferty died on June 13,1982, at age 65 when his car plunged off an earthen dam into a pond near Troy, Pike County, Alabama.
Max Rafferty's papers were donated to the Special Collections Department of the University of Iowa Libraries in Iowa City.