Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, who launched the modern-day conservative political movement with the “Reagan Revolution,” died Saturday. He was 93.
In 1994, Reagan announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, a neurological disorder that erodes the memory and causes degeneration of the brain. There is no known cure for that disease.{{more}}
The man known as the “Great Communicator” spent his final years largely out of public view, unable to carry on conversations even with his children and wife, Nancy.
Reagan, in office from 1981-89, helped redefine the political framework as he led the country into a new conservative view of itself. The Republican Party still draws much of its ideological authority from this period.
He was despised by persons on the left and is remembered as the president who invaded Grenada after the short-lived revolutionary experiment of the New Jewel Movement imploded in 1983 with the execution of popular Prime Minister Maurice Bishop.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Reagan would be “remembered for his leadership and resolve during a period of momentous change in world affairs” but also for the “warmth, grace and humour with which he conducted affairs of state”.
The former president died at his home in the Bel Air district of Los Angeles with at least two of his children, Ron Reagan Jr. and Patty Davis and wife Nancy at his side.