About Michael K. Deaver

Former assistant to the president and White House deputy chief of staff during the Reagan administration, Michael K. Deaver is the author of Nancy and the bestselling A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan. He serves as vice chairman, international, for Edelman Worldwide.

Deaver was born in Bakersfield, California, the son of Marian (née Mack) and Paul Sperling Deaver, a Shell Oil Co. distributor.[3] He graduated from Desert High School at Edwards AFB, California in 1956. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from San Jose State College (now San Jose State University).[4][5] Deaver was initiated and a member of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity at San José State.

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 with Nancy Reagan. According to Kitty Kelley, his work for the latter earned him the disparaging nicknames of "Nancy's Nancy" and "Lord of the Chamber Pot.

Deaver formed his own consulting company after Reagan's term as governor, where Reagan and his upcoming presidential campaigns were among his clients. Accompanying Reagan on his campaign plane in 1976, Deaver performed the Heimlich maneuver on the candidate in order to dislodge a peanut stuck in his throat and reportedly saved the future President's life.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 1981. He principally had responsibility for the president's schedule of events and speeches, and public relations.