A former Harvard vice president and the current ambassador to the Czech Republic has been appointed chief executive officer of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the group announced late last week.

John Shattuck, who served as the University's vice president for government, community and public affairs from 1984 to 1993, replaces Charles U. Daly--who held that same Harvard post in the 1970s.

That Shattuck is once again filling Daly's shoes is "totally coincidental," said Paul G. Kirk, Jr. '60, who chaired the committee that chose Shattuck, though the background the two men gained in community work at Harvard was key in each appointment.

"The position...suggests that the person has a sense and an ability to be cognizant and sensitive to the community around them as an antenna for outreach and community relations," said Kirk, who is former chair of the Democratic National Committee.

The appointment of Shattuck--who is known for his activism on civil rights and foreign policy issues--marks a new era for the Kennedy Foundation.

The foundation once confined its mission to financially supporting the Kennedy Library and Museum, but it has slowly transformed into a forum for the discussion of current affairs, sponsoring a number of political education programs.

With Shattuck at its helm, the foundation intends to become even more active in the national political dialogue.

"John provides us with an ability to really ramp up and reach a new frontier for the library both in the kinds of issues that we'll be addressing, the level of people involve, and the degree of visibility that they'll bring," Kirk said.