Charles Ulick Daly

Charles Ulick “Chuck” Daly, the last living member of President Kennedy’s West Wing staff and a recipient of the Silver Star and Purple Heart for his service in the Korean War, died on Wednesday, January 21, 2026, at his home in Chatham, Massachusetts, aged 98.

Born in Blackrock, Ireland, on May 29, 1927, to Ulick de Burgh Daly and Violet Sealy King Daly, Chuck immigrated to America as a child. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy upon graduating from Chevy Chase High School in 1945 and attended Yale University through the combination of a Navy program and the first G.I. Bill, graduating with honors in International Relations.

Chuck always emphasized the sheer luck that got him into Yale and never quite believed that he deserved his own good fortune, particularly when confronted with the suffering he saw others endure. This understanding of life’s unfairness and randomness drove a lifelong empathy for humanity and a career in public service that he never fully retired from.

Feeling his brief time in the Navy was insufficient to repay his adoptive country, Chuck commissioned as an officer in the Marine Corps Reserve in his senior year of college. In the summer of 1950, Chuck was called up to serve as a Lieutenant in the Korean War. After graduating in the first-ever class of The Basic School (TBS), he led a rifle platoon in Charlie Company, First Battalion Fifth Marines against North Korean and Chinese forces. On May 29th, 1951, Chuck’s 24th birthday, his platoon overran a North Korean command post in the hills north of Inje. Devoid of cover or concealment, he led an improbably successful assault in the face of fierce enemy fire. For his courage and valor that day, he was awarded the Silver Star. His combat experience led him to believe that every Marine has a finite quantity of luck; his ran out on June 12, 1951, when a bullet tore through his left forearm. He endured over a year of rehabilitation and surgery at Bethesda Naval Hospital. He re-broke the arm no fewer than ten times, suffered from permanent nerve damage, and would never pronate his left wrist again, but he kept his arm. For the next 65 years, Chuck would amaze his sons with creative grips on golf clubs, bare-handed baseball catches, and other techniques to prevent this wound from disabling or discouraging him.

After the war, Chuck struggled to re-acclimate to civilian life and find work that matched the intensity of combat. He traded molasses in Central America and got a master’s degree at Columbia School of Journalism. Now a father of his first two sons, Michael and Douglas, his family of four vagabonded around Europe in a VW Beetle.

Through a Congressional Fellowship at Columbia, Chuck took a job in the office of then-Senator John F. Kennedy. Chuck served on JFK’s staff as an aide to the President.

Kennedy’s assassination had a profound effect on Chuck. He struggled to understand how one man’s depravity could rob the country of its greatest hope for peace and prosperity. This feeling was intensified by the chasm between his admiration for President Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson whose succession as Chuck’s boss was cruelly abrupt. While this tragedy sapped much of his passion for the job, Chuck stayed in his role to see through his team’s critical work building Congressional support for the Civil Rights Act. Chuck stood behind Johnson when the Act was signed into law in 1964 and was given a pen from the signing. He resigned shortly thereafter.

He went on to campaign for Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential bid and was with Bobby in LA the night he was assassinated.

Through the 70s and 80s, Chuck’s public service transitioned from politics to more direct involvement in communities, universities, and civil rights. It was a life of courage and persistence in the face of frustration and resistance to change.

Chuck worked tirelessly for peace in Northern Ireland as a founding member of the Ireland Fund’s Board of Directors, collaborating with business and cultural leaders, including Sir Anthony O’Reilly and Dan Rooney. As a member of the Board at Independent News and Media, Chuck became the Special Advisor on HIV/AIDS in South Africa, where the company owned the most widely-read papers in the country and had a unique ability to influence public health awareness nationwide. Not satisfied to report from a boardroom, he took up field work in his 80s, visiting the AIDS-ravaged townships around Cape Town, meeting the sick and dying, doctors, and community leaders.

Like many combat veterans, Chuck never really came home. For the rest of his life, he carried the war and its accompanying horrors with him. While modesty never let him fully acknowledge this, it is a fact that he saved far more lives through his efforts in South Africa and Ireland than he ended in Korea.

Chuck also served as the President of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, where he focused on addressing gun violence and empowering disadvantaged communities. He remained on the Foundation’s Board until age 92, and for a period was joined on the Board by a young community organizer named Barack Obama.

Aware of the transformative role of higher education in his life, Chuck also took on government and community engagement roles at universities. He served as Vice President for Development and Public Affairs at the University of Chicago and Vice President for Government and Community Affairs at Harvard.

In 1988, Chuck was asked to serve as Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Preserving President Kennedy’s legacy and example for future generations of Americans. This became one of Chuck’s most fulfilling endeavors. While Chuck loved many aspects of the job, the friendships he developed with his staff and with the Library’s lifelong public servants were the highlight of his career.

Through all of this, Chuck lived a robust and joyous family life. His first son, Michael, was born while Chuck was deployed in Korea. Douglas arrived two years later. Chuck’s first wife, Mary Larmonth Daly, died of cancer in 1987. As if not fortunate enough to have one happy marriage, Chuck found love a second time in Christine Sullivan, a former staffer on the Hill for Speaker Tip O’Neill, whose passion for public service may even have exceeded his own. They had two sons, Charles and Kevin, who brought him years of joy and companionship through his later life.

In 2020, he published his memoir, Make Peace or Die: A Life of Service, Leadership, and Nightmares.

Chuck is survived by his wife, Christine Sullivan Daly; his four sons, Michael, Brooklyn, NY; Douglas, New York City; Charles, West Cork, Ireland; and Kevin Daly, New York City; his five grandchildren, Sinead, Bronagh, Aidan, Ludlow, and Marcus; and two great-grandchildren, Zelda and Ronan.

He was a former member of the St. Botolph Club of Boston, MA and the St. Stephen’s Green Club, Dublin, Ireland; a member of the Harvard Club of Boston, Long Point Golf Club, Amelia Island, FL; the Bantry Bay Golf Club, and the Marines’ Memorial Club of San Francisco.

His legacy lives on through the causes, countries, and people he served with love and dedication.

A service will be held at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Chatham, MA, on Saturday, January 31st at 11:00 AM. Chuck will be interred with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date. Donations to West Cork Beacon (an Irish domestic violence support service) will be greatly appreciated.