FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CHARLES R. PUCIE, JR.
NAMED TO TOP PUBLIC AFFAIRS POST
BY KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS

NEW HAVEN, CT, Nov. 18--Charles R. Pucie Jr. has joined the Knights of Columbus as vice president of public affairs it was announced today by the Knights' chief executive officer Supreme Knight Virgil C. Dechant. In the new position, Pucie will develop and manage communications and outreach programs in public affairs, public relations, government relations and advertising for the 1.6 million-member Roman Catholic family fraternal service organization. Pucie will be working from the Knights' international headquarters in New Haven as well as from an office in Washington, D.C.

In 1991 Pucie founded Capitoline International Group, Ltd., a Washington-based public affairs and public relations consulting firm. He was its chief executive officer until assuming his new role at the Knights of Columbus. Prior to that, he was executive vice president at Hill & Knowlton and director of its corporate/international counseling group headquartered in the U.S. capital.

Pucie was with Doremus & Company from 1970 to 1985 and was general manager of its Washington office. Before that he was a corporate financial analyst at Chase Manhattan Bank.

He served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1969 as an aviator and artillery officer. He was a combat aviation batallion company commander during his service in Viet Nam, where he held the rank of captain. Pucie was graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1965.

Pucie and his wife Susan reside in Bethesda, Md., and they are the parents of two children. Pucie is a member of Rock Creek Knights of Columbus Council 2797 in Bethesda.

The Knights of Columbus is the world's largest Catholic family fraternal service organization. It provides members and their families with volunteer opportunities in service to the Catholic Church, the community, families and young people. Founded by Father Michael J. McGivney in 1882 as a Catholic fraternal benetfil society, the organization now has $35 billion of insurance in force on members and their families. Father McGivney is a candidate for sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church. The Knights of Columbus approximately $105 million to charitable causes annually and volunteer 50 million hours of service a year.