Charles Gittens

Charles LeRoy Gittens (August 31, 1928 – July 27, 2011) was an American United States Secret Service agent. Gittens joined the Secret Service in 1956, becoming the agency's first African American agent.^[1][2][3]

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]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} "Passings: John Wood, Charles L. Gittens". Los Angeles Times. 2011-08-12. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/12/local/la-me-passings-20110812. Retrieved 2011-08-18. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k} Wilbur, Del Quentin (2011-08-10). "Charles L. Gittens, first black Secret Service agent, dies at 82". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/first-black-secret-service-agent-dies/2011/08/10/gIQAFhYT7I_story.html. Retrieved 2011-08-18. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "Charles Gittens". The Daily Telegraph. 2011-08-10. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/8694143/Charles-Gittens.html. Retrieved 2011-08-18. 

Persondata
Name	Gittens, Charles
Alternative names
Short description	United States Secret Service agent
Date of birth	1928-08-31
Place of birth
Date of death	2011-07-27
Place of death