Donald Regan

Donald Thomas Regan
66th United States Secretary of the TreasuryIn office
January 22, 1981 – February 1, 1985President Ronald ReaganPreceded by G. William MillerSucceeded by James Baker11th White House Chief of StaffIn office
1985 – 1987President Ronald ReaganPreceded by James BakerSucceeded by Howard BakerBorn December 21, 1918(1918-12-21)
Cambridge, MassachusettsDied June 10, 2003(aged 84)
Williamsburg, VirginiaPolitical party RepublicanSpouse Ann Buchanan Regan Profession Businessman, Politician

Donald Thomas Regan (December 21, 1918 – June 10, 2003) was the 66th United States Secretary of the Treasury, from 1981 to 1985, and Chief of Staff from 1985 to 1987 in the Ronald Reagan Administration, where he advocated "Reaganomics" and tax cuts to create jobs and stimulate production. Regan was criticized for his Prime Ministerial style of working, for his involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, and for his frequent disagreements with Ronald Reagan's wife, First Lady Nancy Reagan.

1 Early life
2 Wall Street
3 Reagan administration
4 Retirement
5 Notes
6 External links

Early life

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and of Irish Catholic origins, Don Regan earned his bachelor's degree in English from Harvard University in 1940 and attended Harvard Law School before dropping out to join the United States Marine Corps at the outset of World War II. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel while serving in the Pacific theater, and was involved in five major campaigns including Guadalcanal and Okinawa.

Wall Street

After the War, he joined Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in 1946, as an account executive trainee, working up through the ranks, eventually taking over as Merrill Lynch's chairman and CEO in 1971, the year the company went public. He held those positions until 1980.

Regan was one of the original directors of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation and was vice chairman of the New York Stock Exchange from 1973 to 1975.

Regan's signature, as used on American currency

Regan was a major proponent of brokerage firms going public, which he viewed as an important step in the modernization of Wall Street; under his supervision, Merrill Lynch had their IPO on June 23, 1971, becoming only the second Wall Street firm to go public, after Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.

During his tenure in these two positions, Regan also pushed hard for an end to minimum fixed commissions for brokers, which were fees that brokerage companies had to charge clients for every transaction they made on the clients' behalf; Regan saw them as a cartel-like restriction. In a large part thanks to his lobbying, fixed commissions were abolished in 1975.

Reagan administration

President Ronald Reagan selected Regan in 1981 to serve as Treasury secretary, marking him as a spokesman for his economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics." He helped engineer tax reform, reduce income tax rates and ease tax burdens on corporations. Regan unexpectedly swapped jobs with then White House Chief of Staff James Baker in 1985. As Chief of Staff, Regan was very involved in the day to day management of White House policy, which led Howard Baker, Regan's successor as Chief of Staff, to give a rebuke that Regan was becoming a "Prime Minister" inside an increasingly complex Imperial Presidency. Regan resigned from his post in 1987 due to his involvement with the Iran-Contra Affair, and frequent clashes with the President's wife, First Lady Nancy Reagan. Regan was seen as the fall guy for the affair, and the tongue-in-cheek saying "Reagan had Regan" echoed throughout Washington.[1][2]

Regan's book, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (ISBN 0-15-163966-3), exposes his disagreements with First Lady Nancy Reagan including claims that Nancy's personal astrologer, Joan Quigley, helped steer the President's speaking decisions.[3]

Retirement

Regan retired quietly in Virginia with Ann Buchanan Regan, his wife of over sixty years. Late in life, he spent nearly ten hours a day in his art studio painting landscapes, some of which sold for thousands of dollars and still hang in museums.[citation needed] Regan had four children and nine grandchildren.

Regan died of heart failure at the age of 84 in a hospital near his home in Williamsburg, Virginia.