Appointment of Mary McClure as Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs

The President today announced the appointment of Mary McClure to be Special Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs with responsibility for liaison with State legislators.

Senator McClure was elected to the State senate of South Dakota in 1974. She was the first woman to serve as senate president pro tempore, as well as national chairman for the Council of State Governments, since 1979. Senator McClure has served on the executive board of the Legislative Research Council since 1977, and was on the executive committee of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 1982 - 1985 and in 1988. She also chaired the NCSL education committee in 1986 and the NCSL government operations committee in 1987. Prior to her service in the South Dakota legislature, Senator McClure was a teacher.

Senator McClure received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of South Dakota; a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Manchester, England; and a master's of public administration in 1980 from Syracuse University. She was born April 21, 1939, in Milbank, SD. She is married to Donald James McClure, and they have one daughter.