{{Short description|American journalist (1948–2025)}} {{distinguish|Tony Dolan}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Tony Dolan | image = President Ronald Reagan with Tony Dolan (cropped).jpg | caption = Dolan in 1989 | alt = Ronald Reagan - Anthony Dolan - White House | office = White House Chief Speechwriter | president = Ronald Reagan | term_start = November 17, 1981 | term_end = January 20, 1989<br>Acting: May 3, 1981 – November 17, 1981 | predecessor = Ken Khachigian | successor = Chriss Winston (Director of Speechwriting) | birth_date = {{birth date|1948|7|07}} | birth_place = Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2025|3|10|1948|7|07}} | death_place = Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. | party = Republican | relatives = Terry Dolan (brother) | education = Yale University (BA) }} '''Anthony Rossi Dolan''' (July 7, 1948 – March 10, 2025) was an American journalist and speechwriter who wrote for President Ronald Reagan from March 1981 until the end of Reagan's second term in 1989.<ref name=bio>[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43262 Appointment of Anthony R. Dolan as Special Assistant to the President and Chief Speechwriter], UCSB American Presidency Project, November 17, 1981</ref> Dolan served as the director of special research and Issues and in the Office of Research and Policy at the Headquarters of the Reagan-Bush Committee. He continued to advise Republican candidates and presidential administrations throughout the remainder of his life.
==Background== Anthony Rossi Dolan was born in Norwalk, Connecticut, on July 7, 1948, one of three children born to a Catholic family.<ref name = Roberts>{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/us/politics/anthony-dolan-dead.html|title = Anthony Dolan, Speechwriter Who Gave Reagan 'Evil Empire,' Dies at 76|last = Roberts|first = Sam|authorlink = Sam Roberts (journalist)|date = March 18, 2025|accessdate = March 18, 2025|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}</ref> He was active in Republican politics from an early age.<ref name = Roberts/> Dolan was educated at Fairfield College Preparatory School and Yale University.<ref name = Roberts/> He also served in the United States Army.<ref name = Roberts/>
==Career== After a few years in politics, including as a press secretary for James L. Buckley during the 1970 United States Senate election in New York, Dolan returned to Connecticut and went into journalism, writing for ''The Stamford Advocate''.<ref name = Roberts/> At age 29, he won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting<ref name=bio/> for a series of articles on municipal corruption published in ''The Advocate''.<ref name = Roberts/><ref name = Smith>{{cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2025/03/20/anthony-dolan-reagan-speechwriter-dead/|title = Anthony Dolan, Reagan speechwriter behind 'evil empire,' dies at 76|last = Smith|first = Harrison|date = March 20, 2025|accessdate = March 20, 2025|newspaper = The Washington Post|url-access = limited}}</ref> He left the paper upon joining the Reagan administration, where he remained for nearly the entirety of the Reagan presidency.<ref name = Roberts/> As speechwriter, he wrote the speeches "Ash Heap of History" (1982) and "Evil Empire" (1983).<ref>Warner, Frank (March 5, 2000). [http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2003/12/story_of_reagan.html "The Battle of the Evil Empire"]. ''The Morning Call'' (Allentown, Pa.). Hosted at Free Frank Warner.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Glass |first=Andrew |date=March 8, 2018 |title=Reagan brands Soviet Union 'evil empire,' March 8, 1983 |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/08/this-day-in-politics-march-8-1983-440258 |access-date=November 27, 2024 |website=Politico |language=en}}</ref>
During the presidency of President George W. Bush, Dolan served as Senior Advisor in the office of Secretary of State (December 2000 to July 2001) and Special Advisor in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (August 2001 to December 2007). He remained active in politics until the end of his life, and was named to advise the United States Domestic Policy Council during the second presidency of Donald Trump in January 2025.<ref name = Roberts/>
Under the name Tony Dolan he had been, for a time, a conservative folk-singer who put out the album "Cry, The Beloved Country" and appeared on ''The Merv Griffin Show''.<ref>[http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/K%20Disk/Key%20Records/Item%2002.pdf Key Records]</ref><ref>[https://boingboing.net/2012/12/03/cd-of-conservative-folk-music.html CD of conservative folk music from the early 1960s], boingboing.net. December 3, 2012.</ref>
==Personal life and death== Dolan was a devout Catholic.<ref name = Roberts/> His late brother Terry Dolan was co-founder and chairman of the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC).<ref name=Kastor>Elizabeth Kastor (1987), The Cautious Closet of the Gay Conservative; In the Life and Death of Terry Dolan, Mirror Images From the Age of AIDS, ''The Washington Post'', May 11, 1987</ref>
Dolan died at Inova Alexandria Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 10, 2025, at the age of 76.<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.moneyandking.com/obits/anthony-r-tony-dolan/|title = Anthony R. "Tony" Dolan|website = Money & King|accessdate = March 20, 2025}}</ref>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/findaid/dolan.htm Ronald Reagan Library Collections] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714173743/http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/findaid/dolan.htm |date=July 14, 2007 }}
{{PulitzerPrize Investigative Reporting}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolan, Anthony R.}} Category:1948 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century American journalists Category:20th-century American male journalists Category:American folk singers Category:American newspaper people Category:American speechwriters Category:American anti-corruption activists Category:Catholics from Connecticut Category:Connecticut Republicans Category:Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting winners Category:Reagan administration personnel Category:White House directors of speechwriting Category:Yale College alumni Category:George W. Bush administration personnel Category:Second Trump administration personnel