Speech writers - Reagan had one who was fantastic - Peggy Noonan. She wrote the short piece he did after the Challenger exploded - with input from him, of course.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."
The entire piece is here.