Dr. John H. Knowles '47, president of the Rockefeller Foundation, has been chosen First Class Marshal by the class of 1947.

The Class Marshal, elected each year by the 25th reunion class, presides over the spring commencement ceremonies.

Knowles was one of seven nominees selected last year by a nation-wide committee of class members. Richard G. Kleindienst, chosen by President Nixon earlier this month to replace Attorney General John Mitchell, and Clifton R. Wharton Jr., president of Michigan State University, were also nominated.

Ballots were mailed to all class members before Christmas. Sidney F. Greeley Jr., chairman of the nominating committee, said last night that 38 per cent of the class voted.

Greeley insisted that Knowles's election was not a repudiation of Kleindienst's politics. "I don't think there's anything political in the thing at all," he said. Kleindienst managed the 1964 presidential campaign of Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) and engineered last year's mass arrests of demonstrators in Washington during the "Mayday" protests.

Greeley also said that Kleindienst wasn't as well known as Knowles when the balloting was conducted. He said this was probably a more important factor in the voting than any political considerations.

Other nominees for Class Marshal were: Dr. Warren R. Guild, John W. Middendorf II, Thomas L.P. O'Donnell and Roswell B. Perkins.