Albert Angelone, 67, Was Top Secret Service Agent

Albert Angelone, 67, Was Top Secret Service Agent

Albert Peter Angelone of West Tisbury, a retired Secret Service
agent who helped to protect two presidents and stood tall in the face of
gunfire during a 1975 assassination attempt on President Gerald R. Ford,
died of heart failure July 29 while doing what he loved to do on
Martha’s Vineyard, fishing. He was 67.

Known as Angie to his many friends, Mr. Angelone, a native of
Rockaway Beach, N.Y., followed a familiar daily Island routine that
included stops at Coop’s Bait & Tackle and C&W Power
Equipment for coffee and conversation with friends, and fishing from one
end of the Island to the other.

Modest, good-natured and fond of telling jokes with sometimes
obscure punch lines as he held his ever-present pipe in hand, Mr.
Angelone’s outward appearance and guarded conversation provided
little hint to those who met him on the Vineyard of the legendary,
21-year Secret Service career – much of it spent working
undercover – that earned him a reputation for bravery, quick
thinking and humor.

Mr. Angelone was born Jan. 13, 1939. He was graduated from Adelphi
University where he excelled at sports, including lacrosse and
wrestling. After a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, he earned a
master’s degree at the University of Hartford.

He joined the Secret Service in June 1968 and was assigned to the
New York field office. His physical toughness, street smarts and ability
to win people’s confidence earned him a transfer to the New York
special detail as a key member of an undercover team tracking down
counterfeiters.

“He was a force to be reckoned with when he was
working,” said former agent Frank Forgione of Edgartown, who
described his longtime friend as one of the premiere undercover agents
in the Secret Service.

After working undercover for many years around the country, in 1975
Mr. Angelone was assigned to the presidential protective division. The
assignment thrust him into the public spotlight.

Mr. Forgione said that most agents assigned to presidential security
hope that they would do the right thing if something were to occur, but
for the most part, little ever happens. That was not the case on Sept.
22, 1975, during a presidential visit to San Francisco, Calif., when a
woman later identified as Sara Jane Moore fired one shot from a
38-caliber pistol at President Ford.

“When she shot at the president there were a lot of people
ducking,” Mr. Forgione recalled. “But there just happened to
be a photographer that captured a picture of some people ducking and
pushing the president down, and there was Angie, standing straight ahead
looking into the crowd and reaching for his weapon.” The
photograph appeared on front pages around the country.

Mr. Angelone worked protecting President Ford and his successor,
President Jimmy Carter. In 1981 he was assigned to the office of
training, where he remained until his retirement in December 1989.

“He was unique in every sense of the word,” said George
Rogers, Secret Service assistant director of the office of inspection,
who spent many hours on the streets of New York with Mr. Angelone when
both men worked undercover. One day Mr. Rogers mentioned he liked to
fish. Mr. Angelone told Mr. Rogers he knew just the place to take him to
catch a striped bass and arranged for them to meet at 5 o’clock
the next morning. A long walk through bulrushes and grass and past
abandoned debris took them to a salt marsh at the end of a runway at
Kennedy Airport.

“We ended up fishing right off the approach of some runway and
about every six minutes a jet came over, but we caught fish,” Mr.
Rogers said with a laugh.

The incident that helped to end Mr. Angelone’s career was also
a testament to his self-control and courage. He had been assigned to
teach a group of foreign government agents protective driving techniques
using a heavily armored limousine.

One of the agents closed a door while Mr. Angelone’s hand was
on it, clipping off his finger. He looked down, said Mr. Rogers, picked
up his finger, and without any shouting to indicate pain or distress
said to the agent: “Now look what the hell you did.”

He recalled that at that point the foreign agent fainted, and Mr.
Angelone went to the hospital. Once there, he told the doctors that he
needed his finger because he was giving a harp concert in Carnegie Hall
in two weeks.

But his devotion to his job never eclipsed his love of the outdoors
and his family.

Mary Ann Angelone said that when she married her husband, a lifelong
hunter and fisherman, the first thing he told her was that he needed to
have a week to hunt in New York. She said that week was a very long one.
Later, after he injured his hand, he stopped hunting but continued to
fish.

Mr. Angelone and his wife visited the Vineyard with close family
friends and loved it. After his retirement from the Secret Service due
to complications from the hand injury, the couple built a small house in
West Tisbury.

“He guarded presidents but the most important thing in his
life was his family,” said Mrs. Angelone. “He was very proud
of his two sons, Anthony, a Marine Corps captain, and Peter, a Secret
Service agent. He always put his family first. He put them before the
job, he put them before fishing, he put them before anything.”

Peter Angelone said that his father, who devoted so much time to
serving his country and community, always found time for his family
– even if it was driving four hours each way for a 20-minute
visit.

“He always had energy, no matter how long he worked that day
doing God knows what on the streets,” recalled Peter Angelone.
“He always had the energy to come home and do simple
things.”

A funeral mass will be held on Saturday, August 5, at noon at Our
Lady Star of the Sea Church on Massasoit avenue in Oak Bluffs. A
reception where friends may share memories will be held at the family
residence at 18 Coffins Field Road, West Tisbury, following the service.

Memorial donations may be made to Camp Jabberwocky, P.O. Box 1357,
Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 or Special Olympics Massachusetts, 450 Maple
street, Building One, Danvers, MA 01923.