Donald T. Regan

WASHINGTON (AP) - Donald T. Regan, who served Ronald Reagan as Treasury secretary and chief of staff before being forced from office in the Iran-Contra scandal, died 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 (pronounced REE' gin) died of cancer at Williamsburg Community Hospital in Williamsburg, Va., where he had a retirement home. A hospital spokeswoman said that Regan had been admitted to the hospital on Sunday and died around 3:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Regan's gruff Marine Corps manner had served him well on Wall Street, where he rose to become head of the giant brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, 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 upset Mrs. Reagan by ordering a White House helicopter to fly him to Bethesda Naval Hospital, where the president was a patient. He changed plans and went by automobile instead after an irate phone call from Mrs. Reagan.

It was only the first of many clashes with Mrs. Reagan who complained that Regan was scheduling her husband for too much activity during his recovery from the cancer surgery.

Then came revelations that the Reagan administration had sold arms to Iran while seeking freedom for American hostages being held in the Middle East and that some of the money from the arms sales had been funneled to the Contra rebels fighting the Soviet-backed Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua in the 1980s.

When the presidential board headed by former Sen. John Tower made its report of the controversy in February 1987, it found Regan responsible "for the chaos that descended upon the White House."

"He, as much as anyone, should have insisted that an orderly process be served," the board said.

Regan's characteristically blunt response: "Does a bank president know whether a bank teller is fiddling around with the books? No."

However, rumors flew that Regan would be quickly replaced and on Feb. 27, 1987, the president chose former Senate Republican Howard H. Baker Jr. of Tennessee as his new chief of staff. Regan heard the news from then-national security adviser Frank Carlucci, who had seen it on a television news report.

It took Regan only 15 months to gain a measure of retribution when he published a best-selling memoir, "For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington."

In that book, Regan revealed for the first time that Mrs. Reagan used astrology to determine the timing of the president's speeches and travel.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan issued statement Tuesday praising Regan's service to America.

"I was very sad this morning when I heard of Don Regan's death. From the Marine Corps to Wall Street to the Treasury Department to the White House, Don served this country with great distinction. Our sympathy and prayers go to Ann and the entire Regan family," Mrs. Reagan said in a statement issued in Los Angeles.

Other than the controversy stirred up by the book, Regan chose to live quietly in retirement, taking up painting in his studio at his Williamsburg home.

"After Wall Street and the government, I decided there had to be more to life than the stock market, golf and drinking," he said in explaining his new passion for landscape painting.

Current Treasury Secretary John W. Snow praised Regan as "a great Treasury secretary and an innovative leader of the American business community."

Regan was picked by Ronald Reagan to serve in his Cabinet after a successful career on Wall Street, where he spent more than three decades with the same firm. Regan joined Merrill Lynch in 1946 after serving in the Marine Corps during World War II and rose through the ranks to become the youngest general partner in the firm's history in 1954 at the age of 35.

He served as chairman and chief executive of the giant brokerage firm from 1971 until 1980, broadening the company from a brokerage house to a full-service financial provider through the introduction of cash management accounts that for the first time brought all of a customers' assets into a single account.

Regan is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ann Buchanan Regan of Williamsburg, Va., and four children: Donna Regan Lefeve of Alexandria, Va., Donald T. "Tom" Regan Jr. of Sarasota, Fla.; Richard W. Regan of Denver, Colo., and Diane Regan Doniger of Sante Fe, N.M.

He also is survived by nine grandchildren.


Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press