Gerald P. Grant, a 1968 Nieman Fellow and an education editor at The Washington Post before pursuing a career in the sociology of education, died in his Syracuse, New York home on September 20. He was 79.

Raised in Syracuse, Grant graduated from John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio in 1959 before going on to earn his master’s from the Columbia School of Journalism. He then enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was later hired by The Washington Post, where he became the education editor on the national desk.

Following his Nieman fellowship year, Grant earned his doctorate in the sociology of education at Harvard in 1972. That same year, he joined the faculty of Syracuse University, where he held joint appointments in the sociology department and the cultural foundations of education department. He became a distinguished university professor in 1998.

Passionate about education reform, Grant published several articles and five books on the topic, including “The World We Created at Hamilton High” (1990) and “Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh” (2011), both published by Harvard University Press.

Grant is survived by his wife, Judith Dunn Grant, as well as his three children and five grandchildren.