Appalachian Regional Commission Nomination of Albert P. Smith To Be Federal Cochairman.

The President today announced that he will nominate Albert P. Smith, of Russellville, Ky., to be Federal Cochairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission. He would replace Robert W. Scott, resigned.

Smith is editor and publisher of the Russellville, Ky., News-Democrat and Logan Leader and head of a publishing company, Al Smith Communications, Inc., which owns these and four other weekly newspapers in western Kentucky and Tennessee.

He was born January 9, 1927, in Sarasota, Fla. He served in the U.S. Army in 1945 and 1946 and attended Vanderbilt University in 1946-47.

Smith was with the New Orleans Times-Picayune from 1947 to 1954, as assistant State editor and day police and criminal courts reporter. From 1954 to 1957, he was assistant city editor of the New Orleans Item.

In 1957 he became editor and part owner of the Russellville News-Democrat. Over the next 20 years he bought the other newspapers, and in 1977 he consolidated all the companies into Al Smith Communications, Inc.

Smith has also been producer and moderator for the weekly Kentucky educational television program "Comment on Kentucky" since 1974. He served as president of the Kentucky Press Association in 1975. He is chairman of the Kentucky Arts Commission and chairman of the Kentucky Oral History Commission. He is on the advisory board of the Tennessee River Valley Association.