Jeremiah O'Leary

Jeremiah Aloysius Patrick O'Leary, Jr. (1919 – December 19, 1993) was an American newspaper reporter and columnist.^[1]

Biography

He was born into a family of journalists. His father was a reporter, an uncle was an editor of the Washington Times-Herald, while a cousin, William McAndrew, became president of NBC News.^[2] He grew up in Washington, DC. In 1937, he went to work for The Washington Star as a copy boy.^[2]

During World War II, he served as a U.S. Marine in the Pacific theater and fought in the invasions of New Britain, Guam and Peleliu. He also served in Korea during the Korean War as an information officer.^[2]^[1] He eventually rose to the rank of colonel in the Reserves, retiring in 1976.^[2] He was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Legion of Merit.^[2]

After the war, he was a reporter for The Washington Evening Star, focusing on defense and foreign policy issues. In 1979, he became the paper's chief White House correspondent.^[2] When the Star folded in 1981, O'Leary joined the Reagan Administration as a special assistant to Deputy Secretary of State and later National Security Advisor William P. Clark, Jr. for eight months.^[2] Soon after the founding of The Washington Times in 1982, he joined that paper as a White House correspondent, became president of the White House Correspondents Association,^[3] and ended his career writing a weekly column of nostalgic reminiscences.^[2]^[4]