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Robert McNamara was born June 9, 1916 in San Francisco, Ca. His father was sales manager of a wholesale shoe firm. McNamara graduated in 1937 from the University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. degree in economics. He earned a master's degree from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1939.
After getting his M.B.A., McNamara worked a year for the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse in San Francisco. In August of 1940 he returned to Harvard to teach in the Business School. Following his involvement there in a program to teach the analytical approaches used in business to officers of the Army Air Forces, he entered the Army as a Captain in 1943, serving under Col. Curtis LeMay. One more responsibility was the analysis of U.S. bomber's efficiency and effectiveness. During this period, McNamara helped to plan the 1945 bombing of Tokyo. He left active duty in 1946 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
In 1946, McNamara joined the Ford Motor Company, due to the influence of a Colonel he worked under named Charles "Tex" Thorton. Thorton had read an article in Life Magazine which reported that the company was in dire need of reform. He was 1 of 10 former WWII officers known as the "Whiz Kids", who helped the company to stop its losses by implementing modern planning, organization, and management control systems. Starting as Manager of planning and financial analysis, he advanced quickly through a series of top level management positions. McNamara opposed Ford's planned Edsel automobile and worked to stop the project before the car rolled off the assembly line. He succeeded in ending the project in 1960. In 1961 McNamara was given the position of U.S. Secretary of Defense. McNamara served in that position from 1961 through 1968, resigning that position to become President of the World Bank.
McNamara has maintained his involvement in politics in recent years, delivering statements critical of the Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq. In the 1980's he was critical of Reagan's Cold War policies. In September of 2004 McNamara married Diana Byfield, an Italian-born widow who had lived in the U.S. for more than 40 years. It was the second marriage for both of them.
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