In Retrospect

Robert S. McNamara was born in San Francisco, California on June 9, 1916. He received a degree in economics and philosophy from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1937 and a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939. He worked for one year at the accounting firm of Price, Waterhouse in San Francisco, and then in August 1940 returned to Harvard to teach in the business school. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Force.

In 1946, he started working for the Ford Motor Company as manager of planning and financial analysis and on November 9, 1960, he became the first president of Ford Motor Company from outside the family of Henry Ford. He was the Secretary of Defense for both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations and served from 1961 to 1968. He served as the head of World Bank from 1968 to 1981. He died on July 6, 2009 at the age of 93.

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