Michael Deaver

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"The Troika" (from left to right) Chief of Staff James Baker III, Counselor to the President Ed Meese, Deputy Chief of Staff Michael Deaver at the White House. December 2, 1981.

Michael Keith Deaver (April 11, 1938 – August 18, 2007) was a member of President Ronald Reagan's White House staff serving as Deputy White House Chief of Staff under James Baker III and Donald Regan from January 1981 until May 1985.

1 Early life
2 White House career
3 Later life and death
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early life

Deaver was born in Bakersfield, California, the son of a Shell Oil Co. distributor. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from San Jose State College (now San Jose State University). ^[1]

He worked for IBM, served in the United States Air Force, and later was executive director of the Santa Clara County Republican Party. While Ronald Reagan was running for governor of California, Deaver worked as a political field representative for the California Republican Party, running several state assembly campaigns. After being elected governor, Reagan's chief of staff recruited Deaver to the administration where he began a 30-year career working for Reagan, and building a very close friendship with him and Nancy Reagan.

Deaver formed his own consulting company after Reagan's term as governor, where Reagan and his upcoming presidential campaigns were among his clients. Though initially he disliked the idea of moving to Washington, D.C., he ultimately agreed and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff under President Reagan in 1980.^[1] He principally had responsibility for the president's schedule of events and speeches, and public relations.

[edit] White House career

While serving on President Reagan's staff Deaver along with Chief of Staff James Baker and Counsellor to the President Ed Meese were known as "The Troika" by some observers of the White House due to their influence over policy and over all direction the administration took while they served on the White House staff.

As Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, Michael Deaver worked primarily on media management forming how the public perceived President Reagan, sometimes by engineering press events so that the White House set the networks' agenda for covering the president.

Deaver resigned from the White House staff in May 1985, but reportedly continued as an unofficial and occasional advisor to President Reagan. On March 18, 1987, Deaver was convicted of perjury for congressional testimony he had submitted.^[2] He was convicted on three of five counts of perjury stemming from statements to a congressional subcommittee and a federal grand jury investigating his lobbying activities with administration officials. Deaver blamed alcoholism (which he reportedly suffered for years after growing up with alcoholic parents) for lapses in memory and judgment. He was sentenced to three years' in prison, but the sentence was reduced to three years of probation and a fine of $100,000. Deaver was also ordered to perform 1,500 hours of public service.

Shortly after Deaver resigned from the Reagan White House, he formed Michael K. Deaver, Inc. and became an influential lobbyist. In his later years, he wrote three often acclaimed books: Behind the Scenes (co-written with Mickey Herskowitz), A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan (with a foreword by Nancy Reagan), and Nancy: A Portrait of My Years with Nancy Reagan.

[edit] Later life and death

Michael Deaver later worked as Vice Chairman, International and the head of the Washington, D.C. office of Edelman, one of the world's largest independent public relations agencies, a role he held since 1995.^[1] In an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 2001, Deaver, sometimes accused of being an expert in media manipulation, carefully lighting the president and controlling how he looked, said, "I've always said the only thing I did is light him well," Deaver told the Los Angeles Times in 2001, "My job was filling up the space around the head. I didn't make Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan made me."^[3] According to former first lady and longtime friend Nancy Reagan, Deaver's greatest skill "was in arranging what were known as good visuals — televised events or scenes that would leave a powerful symbolic image in people's minds."^[3]

Deaver died of pancreatic cancer on August 18, 2007 at age 69 at his home in Maryland.^[4] He is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and their two children, Amanda Deaver of Washington and Blair Deaver of Bend, Oregon. ^[1] In a statement, former first lady Nancy Reagan, who attended the funeral of former television actor Merv Griffin only the day before, said on the 18th, "[Deaver] was the closest of friends to both Ronnie and me in many ways, and he was like a son to Ronnie... We met great challenges together... I will miss Mike terribly.^[5]