Announcement of the Designation of Nelson Cruikshank as Chairman of the Federal Council on the Aging and Appointment as Counsellor to the President

The President today announced that he will designate Nelson Cruikshank as Chairman of the Federal Council on the Aging. Cruikshank's designation was announced by the Vice President in a speech to the Council's biennial legislative conference this afternoon. Cruikshank will also be appointed Counsellor to the President. He is presently a member of the Council and president of the National Council of Senior Citizens.

Cruikshank was born June 21, 1902, in Bradner, Ohio. He received an A.B. from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1925 and an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary in 1929.

From 1930 to 1933, Cruikshank directed the relief program of the Brooklyn (New York) Federation of Churches. From 1933 to 1935, he directed the Workers Education Program of the New Haven, Connecticut Central Labor Union at Yale University, and organized for the AFL in Connecticut. He directed the WPA Workers Education Program at New York University in 1935-36.

Cruikshank worked in labor relations for the Farm Security Administration from 1937 to 1942, serving as director of the Migratory Labor Camp Program from 1940 to 1942. In 1943 and 1944, he was executive assistant to the labor members of the Management-Labor Advisory Committee of the War Manpower Commission, and deputy vice chairman of the Commission in charge of labor relations.

From 1944 to 1950, Cruikshank was director of Social Insurance Activities for the ALF. In 1951 and 1952, he was director of the Labor Division Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris, France. He served as director of the Department of Social Security at the AFL-CIO in Washington from 1953 until his retirement in 1965.

Since retirement, Cruikshank has served as a visiting professor at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Pennsylvania State University. He has been president of the National Council of Senior Citizens since 1969.

Cruikshank was a member of the U.S. delegation to the First General Assembly of UNESCO in 1946 and served on the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO from 1946 to 1950. He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the First General Assembly of WHO in 1948. From 1962 to 1970, he was a member of the ILO's Committee of Experts on Social Security.

In 1976 Cruikshank was cochairman of Senior Citizens for Carter with Miss Lillian Carter. He has been a member of the Federal Council on the Aging since 1974 and is chairman of its Committee on Economics of Aging.