Charles Gittens, American Secret Service agent, first black appointed to that position died he was , 82.

Charles LeRoy Gittens was an American United States Secret Service agent. Gittens joined the Secret Service in 1956, becoming the agency's first African American agent died he was , 82..





(August 31, 1928 – July 27, 2011)

Gittens was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 31, 1928, as one of his family's seven children.^[1][2] His father was a contractor who had immigrated to the United States from Barbados.^[3] He left his highs chool before graduation in order to enlist in the United States Army.^[1][2] He was promoted to lieutenant within the Army and was stationed in Japan during the Korean War.^[2] Gittens earned his GED while serving in the Army.^[2] Following the end of the war, Gittens earned a bachelor's degree from present-day North Carolina Central University.^[1] He became bilingual in both English and Spanish.
Gittens taught at a school in North Carolina for one year. He was encouraged to take the civil service exam, which resulted in his recruitment into the United States Secret Service.^[2] He began his career at the agency's office in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[1] He then became an investigator at the Secret Service's field office in New York City, where he served for ten years.^[3] He was assigned to a "special detail" Secret Service unit, which investigated bank fraud and counterfeiting.^[1][2] Gittens was then transferred to the Secret Service's field office in Puerto Rico, where he guarded New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller during his 1969 to the Caribbean and Latin America.^[3]
Gittens was promoted to the head of the Secret Service's field office in Washington, D.C. in 1971.^[2][3] He retired from the agency in 1979.^[1]
He then joined the United States Department of Justice, where he led investigations of Nazi war criminals who were residing in the United States at the Department's Office of Special Investigations.^[1][2]
Charles Gittens died of complications from a heart attack at the Collington Episcopal Life Care Community, an assisted living facility in Mitchellville, Maryland, on July 27, 2011, at the age of 82.^[1][2] He had moved to the facility from Fort Washington, Maryland, in 2010.^[2] His first wife, Ruthie, with whom he had one daughter, died in 1991.^[3] He and his second wife, Maureen, divorced.^[3]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here