Cornelius Wright Sherman spent his life as an educator.

He worked for 34 years in the Hampton Public Schools, starting as a biology teacher and retiring in 1994 as a middle school principal.

He was a board member and later vice president of the Hampton Roads Education Credit Union for 35 years.

But people in Richmond probably know him best as the husband of Deborah Jewell-Sherman, who served as the superintendent of Richmond Public Schools from 2002 through 2008.

She left the Richmond system for Harvard University, where she is a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Mr. Sherman is being remembered following his death Dec. 18, 2014, in Richmond. He was 80.

His life was celebrated Dec. 23, 2014, at a funeral at Fifth Baptist Church in the West End.

Mr. Sherman was born in Staunton in 1934, and his family moved to Waynesboro, where he attended the Rosenwald School built in the area to educate and uplift the African-American community. He later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hampton Institute (now Hampton University).

He met Ms. Jewell-Sherman in 1989, when the two were principals in the Hampton Public Schools. They married in 1996.

In Richmond, he volunteered with Virginia Heroes, a mentoring program for Richmond Public Schools students, and was a member and deacon at United Baptist Church of Bon Air.

Mr. Sherman is survived by his wife; a son, Rodney B. Sherman of Alexandria, Va.; a daughter, Nicole M. Sherman of Boston; and numerous other relatives and friends.