Donald Regan
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Donald Thomas Regan (December 21, 1918 - June 10, 2003), was U.S. Treasury secretary from 1981 to 1985 and chief of staff from 1985 to 1987 in the Reagan administration, where he was critiized for his prime-ministerial style and his involvment in the Iran-Contra Affair.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Regan earned his bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University in 1940 and then joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the outset of World War II reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He joined Merrill Lynch in 1946 as an account executive trainee eventually taking over as Merrill Lynch's chairman and CEO in 1971, the year the company went public, and held that title until 1980.
President Ronald Reagan selected Regan in 1981 to serve as Treasury secretary, becoming the mouthpiece for Reaganomics. He helped engineer tax reform, reduce income tax rates and ease the tax burden on corporations. Regan unexpectedly switched jobs with then chief of staff James Baker in 1984, a position he kept until 1987.
He's the author of For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington.
After his days in Washington, Regan lived quietly in Virginia with Ann, his wife of sixty years and spent nearly ten hours a day in his art studio painting landscapes, some of which sold for thousands of dollars and hang in museums.
Regan died of cancer at a hospital near his home in Williamsburg, Virginia.