Charles “Chuck” Daly, Last Surviving Member Of JFK’s West Wing, Dies At 98

Charles “Chuck” Daly, the final surviving member of President John F. Kennedy’s West Wing staff, died peacefully at his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Jan. 21. He was 98 and was surrounded by his wife and four sons.

A Life of Service: From Ireland to the White House

Born in Ireland and raised in the United States, Daly enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1945 at age 17. Through a Navy program and the G.I. Bill he attended Yale. Seeking more active service, he commissioned in the Marine Corps and was deployed to Korea, where he earned the Silver Star and later received a Purple Heart after being wounded by a sniper in 1951. While recuperating, he returned home to his wife Mary, who had just given birth to their first son, Michael — now a special correspondent at The Daily Beast.

West Wing Aide And Civil Rights Advocate

After studying at the Columbia School of Journalism, Daly worked in the U.S. Senate staff for then-Sen. John F. Kennedy and moved with him to the White House in 1961 as his congressional liaison. Following the assassination of President Kennedy, Daly was among those who stood at St. Matthew the Apostle Church as John F. Kennedy Jr. saluted his father’s casket. Daly remained in the West Wing under President Lyndon B. Johnson to help secure passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Witness To Tragedy And Long Career In Public Service

Daly later joined Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign and was at Kennedy’s side when Sirhan Sirhan shot the senator. He returned to his wife that night, covered in blood, reportedly saying,

“People are animals.”

In the decades that followed, Daly devoted himself to public causes: he worked for peace in Northern Ireland, led violence-prevention efforts in Chicago (where he served on the same board as future President Barack Obama), and supported AIDS programs in South Africa. He also had a memorable encounter with a young Donald J. Trump, during which an associate allegedly described Trump as a “draft-dodging bastard.”

Legacy And Funeral

Daly became a director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in 1988, a year after his first wife Mary died of cancer. He later married Christine Sullivan Daly, who survives him. He is also survived by sons Michael and Douglas from his first marriage, and sons Charles and Kevin from his second, along with five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held in Chatham, Massachusetts, with Daly to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia near the president he served. The burial is scheduled after a service on Saturday, Jan. 31.

Staff Assistant to the President for Congressional Liaison, Charles U. Daly (right), visits with an unidentified member of Congress. North Lawn, White House, Washington, D.C. / JFK Library Foundation

Charles

Charles Daly, at far left, walks in the colonnade past the Oval Office, November 22, 1963. / Courtesy of the Daly Family

A young Charles Daly, pictured right. / UPI

Daly with Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr. on September 11, 1994. / JFK Library Foundation

John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's flag-draped casket as it passes on November 25, 1963. / Dan Farrell/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

Wife Ethel Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy before he was fatally shot on June 5, 1968 during his Presidential Campaign at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. / Frank Carroll/NBC NewsWire

Shirt open, one eye closed, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy lies on the floor of the Ambassador Hotel after being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. / Bettmann Archive

Daly, far right, when he met young Donald J. Trump. / Michael Daly

The crewcut kid in the bottom left corner is Douglas Daly at the White House on November 13, 1963. / Provided

'Make Peace or Die' is a memoir about Daly's life. / Charles U. Daly