William Tucker, at 84; D-Day hero chaired commerce agency

Tom Herde/Globe Staff/File 1994William H. Tucker held the Boston Globe Magazine cover story he wrote on his D-Day parachute mission in 1944. (Tom Herde/Globe Staff/File 1994)

William H. Tucker would put his head into oncoming blizzard winds on a Christmas sleigh ride with the same gusto with which he leapt from a C-47 plane as a World War II paratrooper during the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.

Describing his experience as a combat jumper during the 82d Airborne Division's invasion of Normandy, Mr. Tucker wrote in his memoir, "We felt strong and confident about what we could do, and we had no thought of failure."

It was this self-assured, yet humble, extraordinary, yet affable demeanor that shaped Tucker's life and characterized the man whom family members described as a hero uncomfortable with such a title.

Mr. Tucker, a lawyer and the chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, remained deeply involved in the military throughout his life.

He died Friday, surrounded by his family on Cape Cod. He was 84.

Born in Boston, Tucker joined the Army in 1942 and made three combat jumps with I Company of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82d Airborne, including a parachute jump into Ste.-Mère-Église in the opening hours of June 6, 1944, the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

Mr. Tucker ended his military career a sergeant, after being injured during the Battle of the Bulge in Fosse, Belgium, in 1945.

He received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Combat Infantryman's Badge and numerous other World War II campaign medals and decorations.

This past July, François Gauthier, France's consul general to Boston, presented him with the French Legion of Honor - France's highest military decoration - in a ceremony at the Langham Hotel in downtown Boston that was attended by Governor Deval Patrick.

Mr. Tucker's daughters recalled their father's many war stories, each starring a comrade of years past, which they heard throughout their childhood and until last week.

"He remembered each and every person that was there with him," said Karen Tucker. She said that her father always made himself a minor character in his own tales.

"He was uncomfortable with being called a hero," said his daughter, Sandra Duggan. "He really did feel like one of the soldiers."

Despite Mr. Tucker's long legal career and experience in the administrations of Kennedy and Johnson, it was his service during World War II - particularly during the liberation of France - that shaped his life and remained among his proudest accomplishments.

"It was a feeling of triumph and great strength," Mr. Tucker wrote of the emotions after the invasion of Normandy. "All in silence we felt it, and those watching us felt it."

Mr. Tucker's family described his presence in their home and the community with the same reverence.

"He made it his life mission and passion to maintain involvement with the service," said Duggan, "with patriotism of the highest order."

Mr. Tucker was a founder of the 82d Airborne Division C-47 Club, which has chapters throughout the United States and Europe.

He was a founding committee member for the Liberation Museum in Groesbeek, Holland, which honors the American paratrooper units that took part in Operation Market Garden, the 1944 effort to liberate the country.

Every year, he returned to Ste.-Mère-Église on the anniversary of D-Day. Mr. Tucker penned four books about his experience as a paratrooper and his post-war career, including his memoir, "Parachute Soldier," published in 1994.

Following his military service, Mr. Tucker attended Boston University on the GI bill and received his law degree before starting a law practice in Athol in 1949.

President Kennedy appointed him to the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1960, after he had worked on Kennedy's Senate and presidential campaigns.

He later served vice president of the Penn Central Railroad and was a special consultant to the board of directors of American Airlines.

Mr. Tucker was appointed by President Carter to head the National Transportation Policy Commission in 1977 and later served as a US trustee for the Department of Justice.

For every ounce of respect Mr. Tucker's military accomplishments garnered from his colleagues and fellow servicemen, his family regarded him with twice as much respect and love.

"He was the light," Duggan said. "He could be a disciplinarian in terms of being our moral compass, but on a daily basis he made magic happen. He was the one who made dreams come true."

She described a picturesque family Christmas spent in Wisconsin's woodlands. When a snow storm threatened the family's traditional holiday sleigh ride, Mr. Tucker insisted on making the trip, hunkering down in the coach of the sleigh as the blizzard winds buffeted his daughters.

"We were so miserable, but he was so happy," Duggan said. "He was going to what we always did."

Mr. Tucker's quirks spiced up daily life in the Tucker home.

He would leave letters for his daughters, pages of stationery of his neat script clarifying conversations from earlier in the day.

They were always sealed in envelopes addressed to Top and Two-cents, nicknames Mr. Tucker gave his daughters.

Mr. Tucker leaves his wife, Caroline (Aitken) Tucker; daughters Sandra Duggan of Chicago and Karen Tucker, of Littleton, Mass.; and three granddaughters.

Services will be held Tuesday at Dolan Funeral Home in East Milton.