Paul Kirk

Paul G. Kirk, Jr. was the junior Senator from Massachusetts. Kirk was appointed to fill the seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy on September 24, 2009. Kirk was an interim replacement and served until replaced by Scott Brown.

Bio
Kirk is one of the five children of Judge Paul Grattan Kirk, Sr., an associate justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts,, and Josephine E. O'Connell. (Kirk is also the grand-nephew of Cardinal William H. O'Connell. ) Kirk attended The Roxbury Latin School and graduated from St. Sebastian's School in 1956, Harvard_College in 1960, and Harvard_Law_School in 1964, and was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1965. In 1974, he married Gail Loudermilk and the couple never had any children.

In 1969, Kirk went to work as a Special Assistant to Sen. Edward Kennedy. He remained on in that role until 1977.

Kirk left Kennedy's office in 1977 to work at the law firm Sullivan &amp; Worcester LLP where he worked until 1990. In 1985, Kirk was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In the 1986 mid-term elections, under Kirk's chairmanship, the Democrats regained control of the United States Senate, which had had a Republican majority since the 1980 elections. Kirk resigned shortly after Republican Vice President George H. W. Bush's victory over Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis in the 1988 Presidential Election. He was succeeded as DNC chair by Ron Brown.

Kirk is a co-founder and Co-Chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Committees and affiliations
Kirk is affiliated with the law firm Sullivan &amp; Worcester LLP of Boston, Massachusetts and was a partner from 1977-1990. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Kirk &amp; Associates, Inc., a business advisory and consulting firm located in Boston. Kirk is a member of the Board of Directors of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., Rayonier, Incorporated, and Cedar Shopping Centers, Inc. He was a board member of ITT Corporation from 1989 - 1997 and Bradley Real Estate, Inc. from 1991 - 2000. Kirk is a trustee of Stonehill College. He also served as a trustee of St. Sebastian's School from 1992 to 2004 and again from 2006 to 2009. He is past chairman of the Harvard Board of Overseers Nominating Committee and is the chairman of the Harvard Overseers Committee to Visit the Department of Athletics.