Adam
06-10-2003, 12:25 PM
WASHINGTON Donald T. Regan, who served Ronald Reagan as Treasury secretary and chief of staff before being forced from office in the Iran-Contra scandal (search), has died, a spokesman at Merrill Lynch announced on Tuesday. He was 84.
Regan, forced to resign from the administration in 1987, published a famous tell-all biography in 1988 which revealed that former first lady Nancy Reagan consulted frequently with an astrologer while her husband was president.
Regan died early Tuesday morning of cancer after a brief hospitalization at Williamsburg Community Hospital, according to Merrill Lynch spokesman James R. Wiggins.
Regan's gruff Marine Corps manner had served him well on Wall Street, where he rose to head brokerage giant Merrill Lynch (search), but it failed to help him survive the political minefields of Washington, especially after he drew the ire of Mrs. Reagan.
Regan had won praise for his first job in the Reagan administration as treasury secretary from 1981 to early 1985. Then, in a famous job switch, he swapped places with James A. Baker III, who had been the president's first chief of staff. Regan took over that job and Baker became Treasury secretary.
Regan, however, quickly ran into trouble as chief of staff, drawing complaints from the first lady for what she perceived as an imperious operating style.
When Ronald Reagan underwent cancer surgery in July 1985, Regan aroused Mrs. Reagan's ire by ordering a White House helicopter to fly him to Bethesda Naval Hospital. He changed plans and went by automobile instead after an irate phone call from Mrs. Reagan.
Regan, forced to resign from the administration in 1987, published a famous tell-all biography in 1988 which revealed that former first lady Nancy Reagan consulted frequently with an astrologer while her husband was president.
Regan died early Tuesday morning of cancer after a brief hospitalization at Williamsburg Community Hospital, according to Merrill Lynch spokesman James R. Wiggins.
Regan's gruff Marine Corps manner had served him well on Wall Street, where he rose to head brokerage giant Merrill Lynch (search), but it failed to help him survive the political minefields of Washington, especially after he drew the ire of Mrs. Reagan.
Regan had won praise for his first job in the Reagan administration as treasury secretary from 1981 to early 1985. Then, in a famous job switch, he swapped places with James A. Baker III, who had been the president's first chief of staff. Regan took over that job and Baker became Treasury secretary.
Regan, however, quickly ran into trouble as chief of staff, drawing complaints from the first lady for what she perceived as an imperious operating style.
When Ronald Reagan underwent cancer surgery in July 1985, Regan aroused Mrs. Reagan's ire by ordering a White House helicopter to fly him to Bethesda Naval Hospital. He changed plans and went by automobile instead after an irate phone call from Mrs. Reagan.