Former Watergate Figure Chuck Colson Dies

Chuck Colson, one of the main figures in the Watergate scandal that imperiled former President Richard Nixon, died on Saturday. He was 80.
Former Watergate Figure Chuck Colson Dies
4/22/2012
Updated:
4/22/2012

Chuck Colson, one of the main figures in the Watergate scandal that imperiled former President Richard Nixon, died on Saturday. He was 80.

Colson, whose death was confirmed on his website, later became an influential evangelical Christian leader after he spent time in prison.

On March 30, Colson became ill while he was delivering a speech in Virginia. “The following morning he had surgery to remove a pool of clotted blood on the surface of his brain, and doctors determined he had suffered an intracerebral hemorrhage,” the website said.

He showed signs of recovery in the coming weeks, but last Tuesday, “Colson became gravely ill when further complications developed,” it added.

Colson was considered to have had a major role in the Nixon administration’s scandals in the early 1970s. He was the first Nixon aide to be convicted, although he was not directly tied into the break-in to the Democratic National Committee’s offices at the Watergate building in 1972.