Secretaries Day First Celebrated (1952)
On April 21, 1952, the first Secretaries Day was celebrated. Two months later, U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Charles Sawyer, officially proclaimed June 4 as National Secretary’s Day.
Secretary’s Day, now known as Administrative Professional’s Day, was originally organized in 1952 as "National Secretaries Week" by the National Secretaries Association. A national council was formed to address the shortage of skilled office workers in the United States.
In a public relations move, National Secretaries Week was established as an effort to recognize secretaries for their contributions in the workplace, and to attract people to secretarial/administrative careers. The first unofficial National Secretaries Day was celebrated on April 21, 1952.
Later that year, the National Secretaries Association successfully influenced U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Charles Sawyer, to proclaim the first National Secretaries Week on June 1-7, 1952. He designated Wednesday June 4 as the official National Secretaries Day, and a ceremony was held in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the event.
Today, National Secretaries Week is known as Administrative Professionals Week. The celebration of office workers is once again held during the last week of April. Administrative Professionals Day is celebrated on April 21, as originally conceived in 1952.