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Alexander Comstock Kirk (November 26, 1888 – March 23, 1979) was a United States diplomat. ==Early years== Alexander Comstock Kirk was born in Chicago, Illinois, on November 26, 1888, the son of James Alexander Kirk (1840–1907)〔Chicago Historical Society, ''Charter, Constitution, By-laws, Membership List, Annual Report'' (1903), 286, (available online ), accessed January 25, 2011. James Alexander Kirk was a Chicago Alderman in 1876-7 and influential in the creation of the city's paid Fire Department following the Great Chicago Fire of 1871.〕 and Clara Comstock (1851–1936). His family lived in Hartland, Wisconsin.〔 Their wealth derived from America's largest soap manufacturing concern,〔 which was founded by Kirk's grandfather in Utica, New York, in 1839, relocated to Chicago in 1860, and capitalized as James S. Kirk & Co. in 1900. James Alexander Kirk was a director of the company.〔''Chicago Securities'' (Chicago Directory Company, 1903), 234-5, (available online ), accessed January 25, 2011〕 Its 2 national brands were "American Family" for laundry and "Juvenile" for the bath.〔〔Kennan, 113-4, asked rhetorically in 1967: "who of my age could forget the 'Kirk's soap' of the advertisements of our boyhood?"〕 Kirk was "fat" and "unhappy" in childhood and enjoyed drawing. At age 9, he attended the Art Institute of Chicago until his family decided he was too young to be drawing nude models. He was then sent to work incognito in a soap factory until his identity was discovered. He was then tutored at home for half the year by Hughell Fosbroke, future head of the General Theological Seminary of New York, spending the other half traveling in Europe with his mother and sister.〔 Kirk attended the University of Chicago for one year and then Yale University, where he excelled in physics〔 and graduated in 1909.〔Yale University: (''Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Yale University in New Haven, 1701-1910'' (New Haven: Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, 1910), 236 ), accessed January 23, 2011〕 He appeared with the Yale University Dramatic Association in 1908-09.〔Richard Brinsley Sheridan, ''The Critic or A Tragedy Rehearsed'' (New Haven, CT: Yale University Dramatic Association, 1908), xix-xx; ''New York Times'': ("Yale Men Score in Old Comedies," January 5, 1909 ), accessed January 23, 2011〕 Kirk's father died of a heart attack in 1907.〔 He next spent 2 years at the School of Political Sciences in Paris.〔 In order to fulfill his mother's promise to his late father, he earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1914.〔Harvard University: (''Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates, 1636-1915'' (Harvard University Press, 1915), 785 ), accessed January 23, 2011〕 He was admitted to the Illinois bar. He joined the board of the family business at a salary of $10,000 a year.〔 Kirk had two sisters, Gertrude 24 years his senior and Margaret his near contemporary. His sister Margaret married Albert Billings Ruddock in New York's Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in March 1912. The couple left for Berlin following the ceremony. Ruddock was Third Secretary of the American Embassy in Berlin in 1913, when Mrs. Kirk visited the couple there.〔''New York Times'': ("City Social Notes," March 17, 1912 ), accessed January 25, 2011; ''New York Times'': ("American Tourists Still Crowd Berlin," July 27, 1913 ), accessed January 25, 2011, where the relationship is mistaken called daughter-in-law rather than daughter; ''New York Times'': ("Germany Holds American Crowds," August 3, 1913 ), accessed January 25, 2011. On Ruddock see also Frederic William Wile, ''The Assault: Germany before the Outbreak and England in War-time; A Personal Narrative'' (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1916), 107, (available online ), accessed January 25, 2011〕 In 1954 Ruddock became Chairman of the Board of Trustees of California Institute of Technology, where an undergraduate residence hall was named for him in 1960.〔''The California Tech'': ("Tech trustees pick Ruddock," November 4, 1954 ), accessed January 28, 2011. Ruddock;s State Department service lasted until 1923. He joined the Board of Trustees in 1938.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alexander Comstock Kirk」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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