Patricia Hitt
Patricia Reilly Hitt (January 24, 1918 – January 9, 2006) was the Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under President Richard Nixon. In 1972, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) degree from Whittier College. She died of natural causes on January 9, 2006, at her home in Balboa Island. Hitt was 87 years old. It was noted that she had died on the date that would have been the late president's 93rd birthday. She was the highest-ranking woman in Nixon's first administration.