Jim Haas took a teacher’s advice and chose public service over a promising musical career. After serving as an Air Force officer, he taught history and was a principal and public information director for 25 years in the Turner School District, Kansas City, Kansas. He also taught history and education courses at Avila, DeVry, and Webster universities. Retiring from the public schools, Jim embarked on a second career as director of a Webster University master’s degree program for teachers. He retired after ten years as director, and continues as adjunct professor in Webster’s Global Citizenship program. A native of Akron, Ohio, Jim holds degrees from the University of Akron (B.A.) and the University of Kansas (M.A., Ed.D.) in history education and school administration. He has written extensively for professional journals and other publications in America and abroad, and was named Outstanding Kansas Principal, a National Scholar in the Humanities, and a Milken Family Foundation National Educator. While a principal, a newspaper publisher persuaded him to write a regular column about schooling, a project now in its third decade and expanded to topics beyond the halls of learning. Jim has recently published a collection of 132 columns entitled "Where’s My Great Society?" He and his wife, Kay, are members of the Kansas Exemplary Educators Network (KEEN) and live with two spoiled shelter dogs and a variety of suburban wildlife in Olathe, Kansas.
1992 National Humanities Scholar
1986 Kansas Outstanding Secondary Principal
1974 Ed.D., University of Kansas
1969 M.A., University of Kansas
1965 B.A., University of Akron
