Eugene Black to Head JFK Library

Eugene R. Black, who resigned recently as head of the World Bank, has been chosen chairman of the national fund drive for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library, the CRIMSON learned yesterday. Black will officially accept the appointment within the next few weeks, according to Harvard sources.

Black is believed to be the personal choice of Robert F. Kennedy '48 for the post. The Library Trustees were searching for a nationally known non-partisan figure. Black was favored because of his high national and international reputation as a banker and financier. He was a frequent advisor of President Kennedy as well as of Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, but always in a non-partisan capacity.

Black will build and direct a vast national fund-raising organization which will operate through chairmen in each state and major city. The Kennedy Library Corporation, headed by Robert F. Kennedy, has set up a goal of $6,000,000 to build the Library on a site across the Charles River from Winthrop House.

Black is a native of Atlanta, Ga., and a graduate of the University of Georgia. The choice of a non-Harvard alum nus to direct the fund drive is consistent with the Library Corporation's policy of making the Library a national, not a Harvard, undertaking.

Black's only official identification with Harvard is an honorary doctor of laws degree he received here in 1960. Yale and Princeton have also conferred honorary degrees on Black.

University officials are wary of national publicity identifying Harvard too closely with the Library project. The University, however, has given full support to the Library fund drive and will not back other memorial plans which might compete for funds. President Pusey is also a member of the Kennedy Library Corporation.