For Immediate Release: March 8, 2006
Further information: Brent R. Carney (617) 514-1662, Brent.Carney@JFKLFoundation.org
BOSTON, MA – Charles U. Daly, a prominent leader of the American Ireland Fund and former assistant to President John F. Kennedy, has been named Irishman of the Year by the Friends of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
Daly, a resident of Weston, MA and Bantry, Ireland, will be honored for his public service and outstanding contribution to the community at a reception and dinner at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on Tuesday, March 21, 2006.
Among those paying tribute to Daly will be U.S. Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
The Friends of the Kennedy Library were organized in the 1980s to help support the work of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. The Irishman of the Year Award was established in 1986 to pay tribute to individuals of Irish heritage who contribute to their community. The award is presented annually by the Friends of the Kennedy Library to honor President Kennedy’s love of his own Irish heritage, and his belief that one person can make a difference and every person should try.
“Chuck Daly has given so much back to his community and to the world,” said John Shattuck, CEO of the Kennedy Library Foundation. “His pursuit of justice and economic opportunity for all citizens of Ireland and his advocacy for people with AIDS in Africa are but two examples of his extraordinary commitment to humankind. His generosity of time, talent and wealth is testimony to President Kennedy’s conviction that one person can truly make a difference. We are proud to honor Chuck Daly as our Irishman of the Year.”
Daly, who holds dual citizenship, is the first Irish citizen to receive the recognition of Irishman of the Year by the Friends of the Kennedy Library.
A former aide to President John F. Kennedy, Daly became the Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum on January 1, 1988, and Executive Director of the Kennedy Library Foundation in 1994. He played a leadership role in making the national memorial to President Kennedy one of the country’s leading centers for public discourse and the exchange of ideas. During his tenure at the Kennedy Library, Daly helped bring to fruition several major projects including the construction of the Stephen Smith Center which opened in February 1991; the construction of the Fallon Pier with the University of Massachusetts Boston which opened in 1992; and the construction and opening of the new museum that was dedicated by President Bill Clinton in October 1993. In addition, Daly participated in the establishment of the Profile in Courage Award, the endowment of several major research fellowships, computerization of the Library’s work force, and expansion of the Library’s educational programs.
In February 1994, Daly resigned from his position as Director of the Kennedy Library to become Executive Director of the Kennedy Library Foundation, the non-profit organization providing financial assistance and programmatic support to the federal institution. Under his stewardship, the Kennedy Library Foundation’s endowment grew from $8 million to $20 million. He retired as Executive Director of the Foundation on January 1, 2001.
Mr. Daly, who shares his birthday with President John F. Kennedy, was born in Dublin, Ireland on May 29, 1927 and is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He and his family maintain a home in Bantry, Ireland. A director of the American Ireland Fund, he has devoted the last quarter century of his life to bringing peace and economic justice to his native Ireland and ancestral home of President Kennedy.
Daly served in the Navy during World War II and as a platoon leader in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, earning both a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He retired as a first lieutenant in 1952, having been severely wounded in combat.
Daly graduated with honors from Yale University in 1949 with a degree in international relations and from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1959. While at Columbia, he worked full-time as a reporter for the Reporter-Dispatch in White Plains, New York.
He was awarded an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship in 1959-1960 during which time he served in the offices of Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Representative Stewart Udall of Arizona. In 1961, Daly was recruited to serve as staff assistant to President John F. Kennedy for Congressional Liaison, a position he continued to hold under President Lyndon Johnson until 1964. In addition to serving in the White House, Daly was Vice President for Development and Public Affairs at the University of Chicago (1964-1969); founder and President of the Children’s Foundation in Washington, D.C. (1969 to 1971); Vice President of Government and Community Affairs at Harvard (1971 -1976); and President of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago (1978 -1986).
Since his retirement from the Kennedy Library Foundation in 2001, Daly has served on the Board of Directors of Independent News and Media, a Dublin-based international communications group that publishes over 175 titles in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and India. Independent’s combined weekly circulation is over 29 million copies with additional outreach coming via 70 online sites plus large radio and outdoor advertising operations.
Mr. Daly is Independent’s Special Advisor on HIV/AIDS. In that post he has studied the impact of the pandemic at every level, including spending time with sufferers dying in areas of extreme poverty and considerable violence. With the strong support of colleagues he has used his experience to help the group take a leading public and private role in this struggle.
Mr. Daly was married to the late Mary de Burgh Daly. He is married to Christine Sullivan Daly and is the father of four sons, Michael, Douglas, Charles, and Kevin.
Past recipients of the Irishman/Irishwoman of the Year award include Peter O’Connell, developer of
Marina Bay in Quincy; Dottie Curran, director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Boston; Marty Nolan of The Boston Globe; Gerard Doherty, attorney and political consultant; Senator Edward M. Kennedy; former Senate President William Bulger; Ethel Kennedy; former State Representative James Brett; the late Congressman Joseph Moakley; the late Dave Powers, assistant to President Kennedy and museum curator emeritus of the John F. Kennedy Library; Don Dowd, vice president and northeast manager of government affairs for the Coca-Cola Company; John Cullinane, an entrepreneur in the nation’s computer software industry; Edward Martin, former city editor for the Boston Herald Traveler and longtime aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy; the late William Connell, Chairman and Chief Executive of Connell Limited Partnership; Paul G. Kirk, Jr., former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Co-Chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation; Alice Fitzgerald, longtime Cambridge community and political activist, and a founding member of the Friends of the Kennedy Library; and Richard K. Donahue, attorney, business leader and former assistant to President John F. Kennedy.
The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum is a presidential library administered by the National Archives and Records Administration and supported, in part, by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a non-profit organization. The Kennedy Presidential Library and the Kennedy Library Foundation seek to promote, through educational and community programs, a greater appreciation and understanding of American politics, history, and culture, the process of governing and the importance of public service.