George W. Romney
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George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907–July 26, 1995) was chairman of the American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962 and Republican governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. His son, Mitt Romney, is the Republican governor of Massachusetts.
Romney ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1968 but lost to Richard Nixon. He later resigned as governor in 1969 to serve as Nixon's Housing and Urban Development secretary. Romney left politics after stepping down as HUD secretary in 1973.
Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("LDS Church"; see also Mormon), was born in a church colony in Chihuahua, Mexico. His family was forced to flee to the United States in 1912 because of the Mexican Revolution, and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah.
In 1926, Romney left the United States to spend two years as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland. After he returned, he took coursework at the University of Utah and George Washington University, but never finished a college degree.
In the early 1930s, Romney married his high school sweetheart, Lenore LaFount, and became a Washington, DC lobbyist for Alcoa, where he stayed for nine years. During World War II, Romney headed the Automotive Council for War Production, which worked to optimize automotive companies' war production.
After the war, Romney worked as an executive for the manufacturing firm Nash-Kelvinator. When that firm merged in 1954 with Hudson to become American Motors, Romney became the chairman of the combined company. His insistence that the company follow on a then-untried strategy of focusing on making compact cars led to unexpected financial success for AMC. That success made Romney's name widely known, and he capitalized on it in his successful 1962 campaign for governor of Michigan.
In 1968, he was an unsuccessful presidential candidate, being forced to withdraw after committing a verbal gaffe. Romney stated that he had gotten the "greatest brainwashing" after meeting with generals discussing the Vietnam War.
Romney died of a heart attack while exercising on his treadmill in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He was 88 years old.
See also
References
- Hess, Stephen and David S. Broder. The Republican Establishment: The Present and Future of the G.O.P. New York : Harper & Row, 1967.
| Preceded by: John Swainson | Governor of Michigan 1963–1969 | Succeeded by: William G. Milliken |
| Preceded by: Robert Coldwell Wood | United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development 1969–1973 | Succeeded by: James T. Lynn |