Thaddeus Garrett, 51, GOP Consultant And Minister, Dies In D.C

Starting as a church pastor in Akron, OH, Thaddeus A. Garrett Jr. invaded politics like a hungry evangelist. Soon he became campaign manager for New York Rep. Shirley Chisholm, a Democrat, when she decided to run for U.S. President and then served as a White House advisor for GOP Presidents Richard Nixon and George Bush.

When he died at the George Washington University medical center in Washington of renal failure, the 51-year-old political genius already had positioned himself for a thrilling role in the presidential election in 2000.

He was an advisor to both sons of former President George Bush: Governor George Bush of Texas, the leading Republican candidate for the White House, and his brother Jeb, the Florida governor.

He formed his own consulting firm in Washington, taught for a while at the Harvard University business school, served as a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and continued to pastor at Wesley Temple AME Zion Church in Akron.

He received a doctorate of divinity at Howard University and also honorary doctorates of divinity from Allen University, Livingstone College and Wilberforce University.

Survivors include his father, Thaddeus Garrett, Sr. of Akron, OH; two sisters, Constance Lykes of Ft. Washington and Denise McCoy of Columbus, OH; and a brother, Gordon Garrett of Akron.