"His age just caught up with him," McNamara's wife, Diana, was quoted as saying by Reuters. "He was not ill. He died peacefully in his sleep."
McNamara joined the Ford Motor Company in 1946 and became one of the ten former WWII officers who joined the car manufacturer to become the so called "Whiz Kids". Together, the ten (Wilbur Andreson, Charles Bosworth, Edward Lundy, Arjay Miller, Ben Mills, George Moore, Francis Reith, James Wright, Tex Thornton and McNamara) brought the company out of chaos by implementing modern planning, organization and management control systems.
McNamara opposed Ford's Edsel program, which he managed to stop in 1959 and became the driving force behind Ford's Falcon sedan.
A fierce advocate of road safety, McNamara introduced the Lifeguard package offered in 1956 by Ford, a package which included seat belts and deep center steering wheel. The introduction of this package made Henry Ford II say: "McNamara is selling safety, but Chevrolet is selling cars"
In 1960, McNamara became the first Ford president to come from outside the Ford family since 1906. He only held the position for one month, as he resigned in December to become President's John F. Kennedy Secretary of Defense.
Last year, McNamara fell and cracked a vertebrae, an incident which contributed to his decaying state. At about 5:30 Eastern time this morning, Robert McNamara died at 93.
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