University of Kentucky


Hall of Distinguished Alumni

Julian Morton Carroll

Born in McCracken County, Ky., on April 16, 1931. Attorney. Governor of Kentucky. University of Kentucky, A.B., 1954; LL.B., 1956.

Elected to a full four-year term as Governor in 1975, he had already served a year in the office, moving over from the office of Lieutenant Governor to which he had been elected in 1971.

In 1962, he won his first political race as representative to the Kentucky General Assembly from his native McCracken County. He served five terms in the House, and in 1968, in his fourth term, was elected Speaker of the House.

He attended Paducah Junior College after graduating from Heath High School, where he was student body President and class Salutatorian. While at UK he supported his education by working with the Fayette County Agriculture Stabilization and Conservation Office. He served in the U. S. Air Force, and following separation, he returned to Paducah to open a law firm.

He was charter President of the Paducah Optimist Club in 1962 and continued his membership in the Optimists. He also was a Jaycee. An active lay minister, in 1966 he was named moderator of the Kentucky Synod of the Presbyterian Church, which includes all Cumberland Presbyterian Churches in the state. He also was a member of the Judiciary Board of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

He has received honorary degrees from UK, Morehead, Murray and Eastern State universities in Kentucky, and from Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee. He was a member of Hiram Lodge #4, F & AM, Frankfort; a York Rite Mason, and a member of the Rizpah Shrine Temple, Madisonville.

He has served as Chairman of the Natural Resources and Environmental Management Committee of the National Governors' Conference and was on the Technology Committee of the same organization. He also served as Chairman of the Natural Resources and Environmental Management Committee of the Southern Governors' Conference. He was Chairman of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors.

He was the Commonwealth's employees' Co-Chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission. During his first General Assembly session as Governor, his program as enacted by the legislative body included programs in the areas of economic development, consumer protection, senior citizens, crime prevention, improvement of government employees' salary and working conditions, education, natural resources and environmental protection, plus a number of others.

Julian Norton Carroll was named to the Hall of Distinguished Alumni on April 7, 1975.

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