News
Education: Tony Thurmond’s silver bullet
State Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond at the Sacramento Press Club in September. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press) Abandoned by his father and orphaned at age 6 after the death of his mother to cancer, Tony Thurmond believes he could have easily ended up in prison. Instead, the 50-year-old Richmond resident is the new state superintendent of public education. He is the second African-American in the position after Wilson Riles, who served 1971-83.