Baker Resigns After a Year as Reagan’s Chief of Staff : Cites Wife’s Health; Aide to Take Job

Howard H. Baker Jr., who came to President Reagan’s rescue in the dark days of the Iran-Contra scandal and said he would stay on “to turn out the lights” next January, announced today that he is resigning as White House chief of staff after a little more than a year for personal reasons related to the ill health of his wife, Joy.

Baker, the affable former Senate GOP leader who abandoned a run for the presidency to serve Reagan, will leave the White House on July 1 and be succeeded by Deputy Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein.

Baker, widely regarded as a potential vice presidential candidate on a ticket with George Bush, said he is not interested in the job but would not turn it down.

Looking back over his 16 months as chief of staff, Baker said: “If there is a legacy, it is that we brought cooperation and direction to the White House and to the staff. It was really in a pretty low state when we got here.

“And I couldn’t ascertain that there was any agenda much,” Baker said. “We had to sort of invent one and take it to the President.”

Succeeded Regan

Baker succeeded the abrasive, autocratic Donald Regan, whom the Tower Commission called the chief cause of “chaos” in the White House in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra disclosures.

White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Reagan accepted the resignation “with deep regret.” In a further sign of an Administration winding down, he also confirmed the departure in the near future of longtime Baker aide Tom Griscom as White House communications director.

In a statement read to reporters by Fitzwater, Reagan lauded Baker as “a close friend and adviser who has guided my staff deftly and effectively for the last 16 months.”

“He held a steady hand in the operation of the White House while the Iran-Contra investigations were being conducted,” Reagan said. “Similarly, he was a steady force for peace in helping to move our negotiations toward an INF agreement. . . . “

Pressure of ‘Family Illness’

Although the official announcement said only that Baker had asked to “return to private life” and his Tennessee law firm, Fitzwater acknowledged that “pressures associated with family illness” had been “the primary reason” for the early exit from the White House.

Joy Baker, the daughter of the late Sen. Everett M. Dirksen (R-Ill.), is hospitalized in Knoxville, Tenn., suffering from a back ailment. She has also had cancer surgery and has been treated for alcoholism.

Baker’s stepmother, Irene Baker, 86, also is hospitalized in Knoxville in fair condition after being admitted late last week with stomach pains. Doctors have not diagnosed her ailment.

Noting “the large amount of time” that Baker has spent out of Washington to be with his wife, Fitzwater said, “It has been a matter of some concern to him for a long period of time.”

‘A Little Change Has Occurred’

Last fall, while under fire for his management of the White House, Baker responded to suggestions that he should resign by telling reporters, “I’m going to be here to lock the door and turn out the lights.”

When asked during an Oval Office photo session today whether the resignation meant the lights were going out on his Administration, Reagan replied, “No, it means a little change has occurred.”

Fitzwater said Baker told Reagan before the Moscow summit that he wanted to move up the timetable for his departure. The two discussed the matter more extensively last week.

“He told the President that while he said he would stay until the lights were out, that for personal reasons he has asked that he be excused from that commitment,” Fitzwater said.