• Is 71 years old. Married with no children. Lives in Marstons Mills, Mass.

• Graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in 1960 and Harvard Law School in 1964. Admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1965.

• Assistant to Senator Kennedy from 1969 to 1977.

• Partner in the Boston law firm of Sullivan & Worcester LLP from 1977 to 1990.

• Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1985 to 1989.

• Co-founded the Commission on Presidential Debates in 1987, which works to secure and host debates among the presidential candidates. Currently is co-chairman of the group.

• Engineered a coalition of groups that successfully prevented the New England Patriots from moving their stadium from Foxboro, Mass., to Hartford, Conn., in 1990.

• Chairman of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs from 1992 to 2001. The NDI is a think tank that works to promote democracy abroad.

• Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

• A member of the board of directors at the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.

• Runs a Boston-area business consulting firm, Kirk & Associates.

• A trustee of Stonehill College, a small Catholic college near Boston.¹

(CNN) — Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick named Paul G. Kirk as the interim U.S. senator from Massachusetts on Thursday.

“[Kirk] shares the sense of service that so distinguished Sen. Ted Kennedy,” Patrick said.

Kirk will not seek the open seat in January’s special election, Patrick said, “but for the next few months, he will carry on the work and the focus of Sen. Kennedy, mindful of his mission and his values and his love of Massachusetts.”

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¹SOURCE