ABSTRACT
The son of James A. Hagerty, for many years chief political correspondent for the New York Times, James C. Hagerty (May 9, 1909-April 11, 1981), the future reporter and presidential secretary (1953-1961) to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, grew up in New York City in the Bronx. He attended Blair Academy in New Jersey, and upon graduation in 1928 began work with the New York Stock Exchange. The market crash and subsequent Depression sent him back to school and he graduated from Columbia University in 1934. Thereafter he worked for the Times, as a member of the city staff and then as legislative correspondent and deputy bureau chief in Albany, resigning in 1943 to become press secretary to Governor Thomas E. Dewey. He handled press relations for Dewey’s campaigns for the presidency, in 1944 and 1948. When General Eisenhower ran for the presidency in 1952 it was with Hagerty as spokesman and press adviser, which led in January 1953 to appointment as press secretary to the president.
