K-School Losing Two of Its Top Officials

Two top Kennedy School administrators will follow the time-honored tradition of shuttling between Harvard and the nation's capital, when they leave their posts for Washington this summer.

Institute of Politics Director Jonathan Moore has been nominated as U.S. coordinator for refugee affairs and ambassador at large by President Reagan. And the Institute's Associate Director and spokesman Charles P. Trueheart, will move to Washington to continue his career in journalism as an editor or writer of editorials.

Moore still awaits Senate confirmation, but will leave the Kennedy School by this fall if he is confirmed.

Moore would direct the office that coordinates U.S. actions regarding refugees with those of foreign governments and the United Nations high commissioner on refugees.

Both executives said they had always seen their time at the IOP as an "interlude." Moore said he had not expected to spend the past dozen years there, but had become involved in long-term projects such as the Center for Press and Public Policy expected to open this fall.

"There was just too much interesting and enjoyable action here to allow much distraction," he recalled. "Time has gone very, very fast."

Trueheart said he had planned to stay for only three years when he took the IOP position in June 1983. He said that he saw it as an educational detour from his "career path" of journalism.

Trueheart said of Moore's departure: "This will give him an opportuniuty to make a significant contribution in an area that needs it."

Moore, 53, returns to a career in public policy that began in the U.S. Information Agency under the Eisenhower Administration. Despite his Republican political views, he served in various government agencies during the Presidencies of John F. Kennedy '40 and Lyndon B. Johnson as well as that of Richard M. Nixon.

He has worked on campaign staffs, as well as in the U.S.I.A., Defense and State Departments, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Immediately before assuming the IOP directorship, Moore was associate attorney general in the Department of Justice. He had previously servedas special assistant to the Secretary of Defenseand deputy assistant secretary of state for EastAsian and Pacific affairs, among other posts.

He said "errands" for the federal governmenthad maintained his interest in internationalrelations during 12 years at a school that tendsto concentrate on American electoral politics. Hetoured the Philippines in 1984 on behalf of theAgency for International Development.

Moore said he would not resign officially fromthe Kennedy School of Government unless he isconfirmed in the post, an event he said he refusesto take for granted. The Boston Globe reportedlast week that ultra-conservative ReaganAdminstration elements had opposed his nomination.

The position Moore would assume has been vacantsince Howard Eugene Douglas resigned lastNovember