Deborah Nagy accepts the plaque marking her father’s induction into the Brookfield Alumni Hall of Fame from hall committee member Dan Deramo. Alex Nagy, who died in 2016, was director of the White House Telephone Service.
This story is part of a series on the 2024 inductees into the Brookfield Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.
Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Secret Service spirited away Vice President Dick Cheney to a secret location. One of the staff members who accompanied Cheney was Alex Nagy, the director of the White House Telephone Service – and a Masury native.
“My father was an institution within an institution,” said Deborah Nagy, speaking to Brookfield High School students last September.
Alex Nagy died in 2016 at age 76.
“Al and his White House operators were an integral part of keeping the White House running,” she said. “My father was the first person the presidents would meet when they would move into the White House and he was the last person they’d shake hands with when they moved out.”
The White House switchboard “took up a whole room,” Deborah said, noting, “The White House operators could find anyone anywhere in the world.”
Deeply respectful of the office of the presidency, Nagy served under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
“He never talked about his job and it was non-political,” Deborah said. “He made it a point to say that he worked for the office of the president, not the president.”
Nagy, a 1958 Brookfield High grad who excelled in track and football, worked his way to the White House through the U.S. Air Force.
“He actually found his niche in the air force, working in the field of telecommunications,” Deborah said.
Nagy’s service included postings in Alaska; Johnston Island, southwest of Hawaii; Maryland; California; and Washington, D.C., and he served in Vietnam.
“His final military assignment was in Washington, D.C., and it was with the White House Communications Agency,” Deborah said.
Nagy retired from the Air Force after 20 years of service, but stayed on at the White House as operations manager of the White House Telephone Service from 1977 to 1989.
“He worked in the executive office of the president,” Deborah said. “He was later nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1989 to become the director of White House Telephone Services.”
Nagy often traveled with the president and was with President Nixon on his historic visit to China in 1972 and with President Reagan in 1987 and when Reagan told Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Nagy was at Camp David in 1978 with Carter when Israeli Prime Minister Menacehm Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a peace accord.
Nagy’s family, which included Deborah’s sister, Sandy, and their mom, Sachiko, became part of the White House family.
“Growing up, our family celebrated many Fourths of July, Easters and Christmases at the White House with President and Mrs. Reagan as well as the other presidents and their families,” Deborah said. “We also had the opportunity to meet foreign dignitaries, several world leaders and even the pope. We sat in the Oval Office and took photos in the White House press office. My sister and I even played in the bowling alley and watched movies in the private presidential movie theater. The White House felt like our home, too.”
Nagy was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Presidents Carter, both Bushes, Clinton and Donald Trump paid their respects to the family.
“He would have been proud to serve as an inspiration to all of you,” Deborah said. “Go Brookfield.”
