Appointment of Dr. James E. Officer of Tucson, Arizona, as Associate Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was announced today by Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall.
Dr. Officer, who was instructor in sociology and anthropology and assistant director of the Bureau of Ethnic Research at the University of Arizona from 1955 to early 1961, served as a member of the task force which was appointed by the Secretary to survey the operations and programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Born in Boulder, Colorado, July 28, 1924, Dr. Officer received an A.B. in anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1950 and a Ph.D. in anthropology in 1958, also from the University of Arizona.
He was a radio and television newscaster and writer in Kansas City, Phoenix, and Tucson from 1942 to 1950 and served as information officer for the Department of State in Washington, D. C., and Santiago de Chile from 1950 to 1953.
In 1945-46 he was on military duty with the U. S. Army.
Dr. Officer is the author of numerous publications in professional journals and a book, Indians in School, published by the University of Arizona Press in 1956.
He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, the American Sociological Society, and director of the Association for Papago Affairs. He married Roberta Mitzel in 1946. They have one son and one daughter.
