Abish Kekilbayev, Kazakh academic and politician (b. 1939)
Abish Kekilbayev (Kazakh: Әбіш Кекілбайұлы, Äbış Kekılbaiūly; 6 December 1939 – 11 December 2015) was a Kazakh National writer and politician who served as a Senator of Kazakhstan from 2002 to 2010, State Secretary of Kazakhstan from 1996 to 2002, and the Supreme Council Chairman from 1994 until its dissolution in 1995.
During the Soviet period, Kekilbayev worked as literary writer in which his work have become a noticeable phenomenon in the literary life of Kazakhstan. He served as the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Kazakh SSR, the second secretary of Board of the Union of Writers, the head of department of the Central Committee of Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Head of the Records Office for Culture and Inter-Ethnic Relations of the Kazakh SSR Presidential Administration, the editor-in-chief of the Yegemen Qazaqstan newspaper, the literary employee of the Kazakh adebiety newspaper, the head of literature and art department of the Leninshyl jas newspaper editorial office.
Throughout his life Kekilbayev was recognized with several awards and titles such as Hero of Labour, National Writer of Kazakhstan, laureate of the State Prize, a philologist, academician of the Academy of Social Sciences, Emeritus Professor of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and of the L. Gumilyov Eurasian State University.