Robert L. Bennett, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, announced today that Owen D. Morken, Area Director based in Juneau, Alaska, will be reassigned to Washington, D.C., as Special Assistant to the Commissioner" for Alaskan Activities.
Charles A. Richmond, Superintendent of the Bethel, Alaska, Agency, will be promoted to be Juneau Area Director, Bennett said. The changes become effective on April 7.
Morken, 57 has been Area Director since 1965. He joined the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Civilian Conservation Corps program in 1939 and served in progressively more responsible positions in Minnesota, the Southwest and the Plains States. He was Assistant Area Director at Aberdeen, S.D., before going to Alaska.
A native of Brainerd, Minn., Morken was graduated from Bemidji, Minn., State College.
Richmond, 42, was born in Huntington, N. Y., and received a bachelor's degree from West Texas State University. He joined the Bureau as a teacher at the Unalakleet, Alaska, and school in 1954 and assumed progressively more responsible teaching positions. He became Superintendent of the Bethel Agency in 1966.
A veteran of Navy service in World War II and the Korean conflict, Richmond has received two Interior Department Outstanding Performance awards.
