COLUMBIA — Former State Superintendent of Education Barbara Nielsen has died, according to an announcement from the Department of Education. She was 81.
Nielsen, a Republican, spent two terms as superintendent, serving from 1991 to 1999 before choosing not to run again.
She was the first woman to hold the position and the second woman ever elected to statewide office. Only Lt. Gov. Ferdinan “Nancy” Backer Stevenson, elected in 1978, preceded her.
“Today South Carolina has lost an education champion, and I have lost a dear friend and mentor,” Ellen Weaver, the current state superintendent, said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Her wit and wisdom will be greatly missed, but her shining legacy lives on forever in the lives of the students and state she served.”
Born in Ohio in 1942, Nielsen earned a doctorate of education from the University of Louisville in Kentucky in 1983, according to the South Carolina Encyclopedia. She spent three decades working in education before being elected.
Nielsen oversaw a reorganization of the Department of Education. During her tenure, the General Assembly passed major education legislation, including statewide, full-day kindergarten and authorizing charter schools.
After leaving office, Nielsen was appointed a senior fellow with the Clemson University Strom Thurmond Institute in 1999. In 2022 Gov. Henry McMaster appointed her to a new teacher retention and recruitment task force.