Kenneth Marc Duberstein[1] (April 21, 1944 – March 2, 2022) was an American lobbyist who served as U.S. president Ronald Reagan's White House Chief of Staff from 1988 to 1989.

[6] His major accomplishment of this period was pushing Reagan's economic agenda through a Democratic House of Representatives,[7] including the 1982 Tax Bill.

He came to the job with energy, loyalty, hard work and enthusiasm, having earned the nickname Duderdog; and he made sure to call Nancy twice a day.

[11] He had Reagan give a mea culpa address to the nation; poll numbers went right up and the presidency had been turned around.

[13] Between his White House appointments, he was vice-president and director of Business-Government Relations of the Committee for Economic Development and was a lobbyist as vice president of Timmons & Company.

[14] Prior to 1987, he served on the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, succeeded by Betty Heitman, previously co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

[21] In 2013, Duberstein was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the United States Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.

[28] A space at the Franklin and Marshall Patricia E. Harris Center for Business, Government and Public Policy is named for him, the "Duberstein West Wing".

[1] He was an adviser to former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, according to syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who said that Duberstein was a source for David Corn's and Michael Isikoff's book about the Valerie Plame affair in which Armitage was found to be the one who leaked Plame's CIA status to Novak.

[1] Duberstein guided Supreme Court justices David Souter and Clarence Thomas through their ritualistic confirmation proceedings.

Other high level appointees he advised and guided through confirmation hearings included CIA director Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

His business partner, Michael S. Berman, a Democrat, performed similar tasks for Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G.

[39] A gregarious and rumpled, wise-cracking ‘people person’ of relentless optimism and energy...the consummate Washington insider and institutionalist, a big man with an easy smile and a generous laugh who could be hard-nosed, loved gossiping with reporters, believed in bipartisanship and offered his advice to anyone who asked – especially those who succeeded him in the chief of staff job.

[27][42][43][44][45] He later broke from his party in the election and supported Obama; commenting on the nomination of Sarah Palin for vice-president, he said: “Even at McDonald's, you’re interviewed three times before you’re given a job.