Edward V. Hickey, Jr. – Corporal, United States Army

Government Official

Edward V. Hickey, Chairman of the United States Maritime Commision and a former Reagan White House aide died Saturday, January 9, 1988, in his Falls Church, Virginia, home of an apparent heart attack. He was 52.

Hickey was born in Dedham, Massachusetts and served in the United States Army in the mid-1950s. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Boston College in 1960 and worked as a youth counselor at the Massachusetts Youth Authority until 1964. He was also a graduate of the Treasury Department’s Law Enforcement Officer’s School and the United States Secret Service Special Agent School.

From 1964 to 1969, he was assigned as a Secret Service Agent, guarding the Kennedy Family, George Wallace, President Lyndon Baines Johnson and Hubert Humphrey. He was then assigned to protect then-California Governor Ronald Reagan one day after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968. In 1969, he joined Reagan’s personal staff as Executive Director of the California State Police and Director of Security for the Reagans. “Ever since Ed Hickey was first assigned to us in Sacramento, we have become very close,” Nancy Reagan told reporters in May 1981. “I am devoted to him. I trust him. I depend on him.”

He joined the U.S. State Department in 1974 and worked as Assistant Director of the Office of Security in Washington, D.C. In 1978 he became the Department’s Senior Regional Security Officer, based in London. He joined President Reagan’s staff in January 1981 as a Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Military Office. A year later he was promoted to Assistant to the President, a job he held until becoming head of the Federal Maritime Commission in 1985.

Pope John Paul II invested him as a Knight of Saint Gregory and in 1985 the U.S. Department of Defense awarded him the Distinguished Public Service Medal, their highest civilian honor. He received confirmation for another five-year term as Maritime Commisioner in 1986. He was a member of the Board of Regents of Catholic University in Washington, D.C., the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara, seven sons and three brothers. President and Nancy Reagan are scheduled to attend his 10 AM funeral in the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

He was buried in Section 7-A, Grave 143, of Arlington National Cemetery, near the Tomb of the Unknowns and the Memorial Amphitheater.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard