Life and Career
Blumenthal was born in Oranienburg, Brandenburg, Germany, the son of Rose Valerie (née Markt) and Ewald Blumenthal, who owned a dress shop. The Blumenthals were Jewish, and left the country in 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. They went to Shanghai, and then to the United States in 1947. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1951 with a B.S. degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business. He later received a Ph.D from Princeton University, where he was also a taught Economics from 1953-1956. He then joined Crown Cork International Corporation, where he rose to Vice President and Director.
In the 1960s, he entered politics and public service. He served in the State Department from 1961 until 1967 as advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson on trade. Following a ten-year career as president and then chairman of the board with Bendix International, President Jimmy Carter appointed him as Secretary of the Treasury, where he served from January 23, 1977 to August 4, 1979.
He returned to the business sector and joined Burroughs Corporation in 1980 as Vice Chairman, then Chairman of the Board a year later. After a merger into the Unisys Corporation in 1986, he became Chairman and CEO of Unisys, where he remained until retiring in 1990.
From his former marriage, Blumenthal had three daughters: Ann, Jill, and Jane, and has many grandchildren.
Currently he resides in Berlin and Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife, Barbara and his son Michael, and is director of the Jewish Museum Berlin. In 2008, he was elected as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and pledged to back President Barack Obama.
Read more about this topic: W. Michael Blumenthal
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