The 1960s was a tumultuous decade in American public education. It was a time of transition and change. To many Americans in the early 1960s, Max Rafferty appeared to be a reactionary conservative harking back to an educational past. The longer perspective of history may instead see Rafferty as a harbinger of the educational policies of the 1990s. Thus, Max Rafferty's notions of educational policy and practice deserve attention. This article presents a profile of Max Rafferty and examines the role he played as California's superintendent of schools during the period 1963 to 1971.