A familiar face to Jacksonville residents will be the next chairman of the board of directors to the Abraham Lincoln Library in Springfield. Governor J.B. Pritzker announced yesterday that retired 18th District Congressman and former Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood will be the new chair of the board of directors to the ALPLM. LaHood represented the 18th District from 1995-2009 when he retired and was appointed to Secretary of the Department of Transportation under former President Barack Obama until 2013. LaHood has been working in the private sector in Peoria ever since.
Pritzker fired ALPLM director Alan Lowe last Friday. Lowe had been at odds with the Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, which borrowed millions of dollars to buy a collection of Lincoln artifacts, including a hat that purportedly belonged to the 16th president, but findings later deemed the authenticity to be inconclusive, according to the State Journal Register.
LaHood’s appointment comes amid other shake-ups at the library including announcements of librarian and conservator Joan Brodsky as the museum board’s historic preservation expert as well as further appointments to the board. Ray LaHood is the father of current 18th District Congressman Darin LaHood.