High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Maxwell Lewis Rafferty, Jr., known as Max Rafferty (May 9, 1917 – June 13, 1982), was an American author, educator, and politician. He wrote several best-selling books about education, served two terms as California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and ran unsuccessfully in 1968 for the United States Senate as the Republican nominee, having been defeated by the Democrat Alan Cranston.