WASHINGTON — Jerry S. Parr, the quick-thinking and fast-moving Secret Service agent who was credited with saving the life of President Ronald Reagan after the 1981 assassination attempt in Washington, died Oct. 9 at a hospice center near his home in Washington. He was 85.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said his wife, Carolyn Parr.
Parr had been an electric power lineman before his Secret Service years and a clergyman in retirement. But he was best known for the fraught moments after gunfire erupted on March 30, 1981, as the president was leaving the Washington Hilton Hotel.
In that time of chaos, Parr seemed the epitome of the firm-jawed man of action: forceful, resolute, decisive.
At the president’s side when the shots resounded, Parr did not immediately look for the gunman, John Hinckley Jr. Instead, according to accounts, Parr placed his hand on Reagan’s shoulder and pushed the president into an awaiting limousine.
The vehicle pulled away from the hotel, leaving behind a scene of blood and tumult. Also severely wounded by gunfire had been White House press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and D.C. police officer Thomas Delahanty.
Although Parr and the president were moving swiftly away from the carnage, shielded by the armor of a bulletproof vehicle, the agent’s responsibilities were far from over. Carefully, he ran his hands over Reagan’s body, searching for bullet wounds. He found none.
Then he recognized the ominous signs: The president complained about pain in his chest, and there was blood on Reagan’s lips.
Parr immediately ordered that the limo be driven to George Washington University Hospital instead of the White House. The president survived, but he had a close call.
“If Jerry hadn’t made the change,” first lady Nancy Reagan later told CNN host Larry King, “I wouldn’t have a husband.”
Parr was born in Montgomery, Ala., on Sept. 16, 1930, His first job was as a lineman for Florida Power and Light. It was often hazardous work, and he was pallbearer at the funerals of eight colleagues.
When he applied to join the Secret Service in 1962, soon after graduating from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, he was asked at an interview about what motivated him to assume the perils of the job. As he recalled it, his wife said, he replied that he did not expect the work to be as dangerous as what he had been doing for the power company.
He is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and three daughters.
