Nomination of Roger Kirk To Be United States Ambassador to Romania

The White House today announced the President's intention to nominate Roger Kirk, of the District of Columbia, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, Class of Career Minister, as Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Romania. He would succeed David B. Funderburk.

Mr. Kirk served as a general services assistant in Moscow from 1949 to 1951. He was appointed a Foreign Service officer in 1955 and was assigned to the Department's Executive Secretariat until 1957. He then went to Rome as political officer until 1959. He returned to the Department in 1959 to serve as staff assistant to the Counselor of the Department, followed by special assistant to the Secretary of State from 1960 to 1961. From 1961 to 1962, he was public affairs adviser in the Office of Soviet Union Affairs, Bureau of European Affairs. He then studied the Russian language in Oberammergau, Germany (Soviet area and language school), from 1962 to 1963. From there he served as consular officer in Moscow (1963-1964), to be followed as political officer in Moscow (1964-1965), New Delhi (1965-1967), and then Saigon (1967-1969). From 1969 to 1971, he was assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary on Vietnam in the Department. He then attended the senior seminar until 1972 when he was sent on detail to the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency as Deputy Assistant Director for International Relations. He was appointed Ambassador to the Somali Democratic Republic in 1973, where he served until 1975 when he became Deputy Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in the Department. In 1978 he was appointed the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations system organizations in Vienna, Austria, with the rank of Ambassador. He served there until 1983 when he was asked to serve as Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

Mr. Kirk was born November 2, 1930, in Newport, RI. He received his B.A. in 1952 from Princeton University, where he graduated magna cum laude. In 1953 he attended the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He served in the United States Air Force from 1952 to 1955. Mr. Kirk is fluent in Russian, Italian, and French. He is married to the former Madeleine Yaw, and they have four children.