{{Short description|American banker and cabinet official (1918–2003)}} {{Distinguish|Ronald Reagan}} {{More citations needed|date=August 2016}} {{Use American English|date=December 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2011}} {{Infobox officeholder | image = Donald Regan 19850208 (cropped).jpg | caption = Regan in 1985 | office = 11th White House Chief of Staff | president = Ronald Reagan | term_start = February 4, 1985 | term_end = February 27, 1987 | predecessor = James Baker | successor = Howard Baker | office1 = 66th United States Secretary of the Treasury | president1 = Ronald Reagan | deputy1 = R. T. McNamar | term_start1 = January 22, 1981 | term_end1 = February 1, 1985 | predecessor1 = G. William Miller | successor1 = James Baker | birth_name = Donald Thomas Regan | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|12|21}} | birth_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|6|10|1918|12|21}} | death_place = Williamsburg, Virginia, U.S. | party = Republican | spouse = Ann George Buchanan<br/>({{abbr|m.|married}}{{nbsp}}1942) | children = 4 | education = Harvard University (BA) | signature = Donald T Regan sig.jpg | branch = United States Marine Corps | rank = Lieutenant colonel | battles = World War II }}
'''Donald Thomas Regan'''{{Efn|Pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|iː|ɡ|ən}} {{respell|REE|gən}}}} (December 21, 1918 – June 10, 2003) was an American government official and business executive who served as the 66th United States secretary of the treasury from 1981 to 1985 and as the 11th White House chief of staff from 1985 to 1987 under President Ronald Reagan.
Regan studied at Harvard University before he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel. In 1946, he began to work for Merrill Lynch, serving as its chairman and CEO from 1971 to 1980. In the Reagan administration, Regan advocated "Reaganomics" and tax cuts as a means to create jobs and to stimulate production.
==Early life and education== Donald Regan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Kathleen (née Ahearn) and William Francis Regan. Regan earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from Harvard College in 1940 and attended Harvard Law School before dropping out to join the Marine Corps at the outset of World War II. He reached the rank of lieutenant colonel while he was serving in the Pacific Theater. He was involved in five major campaigns, including Guadalcanal and Okinawa.<ref name=obit></ref>
In 1942, Regan married the former Ann George Buchanan, with whom he had four children: Donna Regan Lefeve, Donald T. Regan Jr., Richard William Regan, and Diane Regan Doniger.<ref name=obit></ref>
==Merrill Lynch== thumb|left|1981 portrait of Regan as Merrill Lynch's CEO After the war, Regan joined Merrill Lynch in 1946 as an account executive trainee. He worked up through the ranks, eventually taking over as the firm's chairman and CEO in 1971; 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. He 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 its initial public offering on June 23, 1971, becoming the second Wall Street firm to go public after Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
During his tenure in these two positions, Regan 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. His lobbying played a large part of fixed commissions being abolished in 1975.
==Reagan administration== President Ronald Reagan selected Donald Regan in 1981 to serve as treasury secretary, marking him as a spokesman for his economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics". He helped engineer changes in the tax code, reduce income tax rates, and decrease taxes for corporations. Regan unexpectedly swapped jobs with then White House chief of staff James Baker in 1985.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boot |first=Max |title=Reagan: His Life and Legend |date=2024 |publisher=Liveright Publishing Corporation |isbn=978-0-87140-944-7 |edition=1st |location=New York, NY |pages=610–630}}</ref><ref name=":39">{{Cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Peter |title=The man who ran Washington: the life and times of James A. Baker III |last2=Glasser |first2=Susan |date=2021 |publisher=Anchor Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC |isbn=978-1-101-91216-4 |edition=First Anchor Books |location=New York |pages=250–265}}</ref>
As chief of staff, Regan was closely 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. During his four years as Secretary of the Treasury, Regan did not have a single one-to-one meeting with the president. Regan was forced to resign for repeatedly disagreeing with the First Lady and for his role in the Iran–Contra affair.<ref>Fred I. Greenstein, "Ronald Reagan—Another Hidden-Hand Ike?." ''PS: Political Science & Politics'' 23.1 (1990): 7-13.</ref> The Tower Commission, established by President Reagan to investigate the scandal, concluded that Regan was responsible for the "chaos" that took hold of the White House. "More than almost any Chief of Staff in recent memory, he asserted control over the White House staff and sought to extend this control to the National Security Adviser. He was personally active in national security affairs, and attended almost all the relevant meetings regarding the Iran initiative. He, as much as anyone, should have insisted that an orderly process be observed."<ref>Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus. ''Landslide: The Unmaking of the President 19840-1988'', (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1988),{{ISBN|978-0006374374}}</ref>
thumb|Regan in 1988
Regan's 1988 memoir, ''For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington'', exposes his disagreements with first lady Nancy Reagan, revealing publicly that she had a personal astrologer who was later revealed to be Joan Quigley with whom she consulted and who helped steer the president's decisions. Regan wrote:
<blockquote>Virtually every major move and decision the Reagans made during my time as White House Chief of Staff was cleared in advance with a woman in San Francisco [Quigley] who drew up horoscopes to make certain that the planets were in a favorable alignment for the enterprise.<ref>Donald Regan. ''For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington'', (San Diego: Harcourt Trade Publishers, 1988) {{ISBN|0151639663}}</ref><ref>[http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20099022,00.html "The President's Astrologers", ''People'' (May 23, 1988)]</ref></blockquote>
Ronald and Nancy Reagan denied that astrology influenced any policies or decisions.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--not stated--> |date=October 24, 2014 |title=Reagan astrologer, Joan Quigley, dies at 87 |url=https://apnews.com/article/17bc221b91034a4f97b5360f4918bb34 |publisher=AP News |access-date=March 15, 2023}}</ref>
==Retirement== Regan retired quietly in Virginia with Ann Regan, his wife of over 60 years. In later life, he spent nearly 10 hours a day in his art studio painting landscapes. He had four children and nine grandchildren.<ref name=obit/>
==Death== Regan died of cancer on June 10, 2003, at the age of 84, in a hospital near his home in Williamsburg, Virginia.<ref name=obit>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/11/us/donald-regan-84-financier-and-top-reagan-aide-dies.html |title=Donald Regan, 84, Financier and Top Reagan Aide, Dies |work=The New York Times |access-date=March 20, 2014 |date=June 11, 2003}}</ref> His remains were interred at Arlington National Cemetery.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://ancexplorer.army.mil/publicwmv/#/arlington-national/search/results/1/CgVyZWdhbhIGZG9uYWxk/|website=ANC Explorer|title=Burial detail: Regan, Donald T|accessdate=January 27, 2023}}</ref>
==Sayings== In the portrait of Regan that hangs on the third floor of the treasury, the title of a book in the background reads ''And the Horse You Rode In On''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Jeffery H. |last=Birnbaum |first2=Alan S. |last2=Murray |title=Showdown at Gucci Gulch: Lawmakers, Lobbyists, and the Unlikely Triumph of Tax Reform |year=1987 |location=New York |publisher=Random House |isbn=0394560248 |page=[https://archive.org/details/showdownatguccig0000birn/page/68 68] |url=https://archive.org/details/showdownatguccig0000birn/page/68 }}</ref>
"You've got to give loyalty down if you want loyalty up."<ref>{{cite book |first=Tom |last=Hopkins |title=Selling in Tough Times: Secrets to Selling When No One Is Buying |year=2010 |location=New York |publisher=Hachette Book Group |isbn=9780446558501}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Wally |last=Adamchik |title=Construction Leadership from A to Z: 26 Words to Lead By |year=2011 |location=Austin, Texas |publisher=Live Oak Book Company |isbn=9781936909179 }}</ref>
== Books == * Regan, Donald T. ''For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington'' (1988)
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== * Johns, Andrew L. ed. ''A Companion to Ronald Reagan'' (2015) * {{cite book |last1=Whipple |first1=Chris |title=The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency |date=2017 |publisher=Crown |location=New York |isbn=9780804138260}} * Zaleznik, Abraham. "A Disengaged President: Ronald Reagan and His Lieutenants." ''Hedgehogs and Foxes'' (Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2008) pp. 23–43.
==External links== *{{IMDb name| 0716404}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Regan, Donald}} Category:1918 births Category:2003 deaths Category:20th-century American politicians Category:20th-century American memoirists Category:American chief executives of financial services companies Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Category:American people of Irish descent Category:Deaths from cancer in Virginia Category:Harvard College alumni Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Massachusetts Republicans Category:Merrill (company) people Category:Politicians from Cambridge, Massachusetts Category:Politicians from Williamsburg, Virginia Category:Reagan administration cabinet members Category:United States Marine Corps officers Category:United States secretaries of the treasury Category:White House chiefs of staff