This is historical material, "frozen in time." The web site is no longer updated and links to external web sites and some internal pages will not work.

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release December 6, 1995

      PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES JOSEPH LANE KIRKLAND TO BE AN ALTERNATE 
     REPRESENTATIVE TO THE FIFTIETH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 
                             THE UNITED NATIONS
     
     President Clinton today announced his intent to nominate

Joseph Lane Kirkland to be an Alternate Representative to the fiftieth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Mr. Kirkland is the former President of the AFL-CIO. Prior to his election, in 1979, as President, he had served for ten years as Secretary-Treasurer, the AFL-CIO's second highest office.

Mr. Kirkland graduated in 1942 from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, Long Island, New York and served throughout World War II as a deck officer aboard various merchant vessels, gaining an unlimited license as Master Mariner. After the war, he entered the U. S. Navy's hydrographic office as a nautical scientist, while studying at night at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from Georgetown in 1948.

He then joined the staff of the AFL, leaving in 1958 to become Director of Research and Education of the International Union of Operating Engineers. In 1960 he returned to the AFL-CIO as Executive Assistant to the President. In 1969, he was elected Secretary-Treasurer, and, in 1979, President of the Federation. He retired from that office in August of 1995.

-30-30-30-