George W. Romney, 88, a former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, governor of Michigan, chairman of American Motors Corp. and a contender for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination, died July 26 at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. He collapsed after suffering a heart attack while exercising on a treadmill.
Mr. Romney was among the luminaries of the national Republican Party after his 1966 election to a third consecutive term as governor of Michigan with a 570,000-vote plurality. But he abandoned his bid for the party's presidential nomination two weeks before the 1968 New Hampshire primary. That was after a three-month campaign that was dogged by his nationally televised comment attributing his initial support for the Vietnam War to his being "brainwashed" by the U.S. military during a tour of the Southeast Asian country. He would later call U.S. participation in the war "the most tragic foreign policy mistake in the nation's history."
In a 1989 interview with the Associated Press, Mr. Romney insisted his comments about having been brainwashed had nothing to do with his withdrawal from the presidential race. "It was because Nelson Rockefeller became a candidate, and there was no way I could get the nomination fighting both Rockefeller and Richard Nixon," he said.
From 1969 until 1973, Mr. Romney served as HUD secretary. But he left Nixon's Cabinet less than enthusiastic about his federal service, declaring that he looked forward "with great enthusiasm" to his return to private life. Administration support for urban programs had been less than what he had hoped for, he said.
In 1974, he became the founding chairman of the Arlington-based National Volunteer Center, an organization that promotes volunteerism. In 1991, the center merged with the Points of Light Foundation, which was supported by President George Bush.
A lifelong member and former bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Mr. Romney spent two years as a Mormon missionary in England and Scotland during the 1920s. Friends said there was an evangelical strain about many of his undertakings later in life as well.
As chairman and president of American Motors from 1954 until 1962, Mr. Romney played a key role in bringing the compact economy car to the U.S. public. He oversaw marketing for the Rambler, which he promoted with a missionary enthusiasm. Lambasting the large chromium-laden cars produced by Ford, Chrysler and General Motors then, he declared: "Who wants to have a gas-guzzling dinosaur in his garage? . . . Think of the gas bills!"
Trapped once in a St. Louis traffic jam, he lectured a taxi driver that the mess never would have happened if everyone drove smaller cars. "Next time, try a Rambler," he advised as he left the cab.
He resigned from American Motors to run for governor of Michigan and defeated incumbent John B. Swainson in 1962, breaking a 14-year Democratic hold on the state's governorship. During his six years as governor, a new Michigan Constitution took effect, civil rights and tax reform measures were undertaken, and the state economy improved.
As a politician, Mr. Romney had many of the standard attributes: a quick smile, ready handshake and a smooth delivery of speeches. But he also was blunt, unequivocal and often impatient, and he sometimes stepped on toes.
As governor, he had office hours on Thursday mornings when Michigan residents could stop by and talk with him for five minutes each. He made a point of shaking hands with schoolchildren who toured the state capitol.
In his personal life, he neither smoke nor drank alcohol, and he tithed regularly, giving 10 percent of his income to the Mormon Church. A physical fitness buff all his life, he exercised regularly, often playing golf early in the morning before work. In his later years, he devised what he called a "compact 18" holes, in which he played three balls on each of six holes.
Mr. Romney was born in a Mormon community in Chihuahua, Mexico, and he grew up in Idaho and Utah. He attended Latter-day Saints Junior College in Salt Lake City, the University of Utah and George Washington University. While at GWU, he worked in the office of Sen. David I. Walsh (D-Mass.).
During the 1930s, he worked for Aluminum Co. of America as a salesman in Los Angeles and later as Alcoa's representative in Washington. During that time, he served two years as president of the Washington Trade Association Executives.
Later, he was manager of the Detroit office of the Automobile Manufacturers Association. During World War II, he was managing director of the Automotive Council for War Production and general manager of the Automobile Manufacturers Association.
He joined Nash-Kelvinator Corp. as assistant to the president in 1948, becoming executive vice president in 1953. In 1954, Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson Motor Car Co. merged to form American Motors; Mr. Romney became its president and chairman. During the next four years at the company's helm, he took the business from a money-losing operation into prosperity. In the process, he became a wealthy man himself.
In that period, Mr. Romney also was chairman of a citizens committee that studied the needs of Detroit's public schools. He led a citizens effort to call a state constitutional convention and subsequently served as a delegate to the convention.
In 1931, Mr. Romney married Lenore LaFount, his high school sweetheart.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two daughters, Lynn Keenan and Jane Romney; two sons, G. Scott Romney and Mitt Romney, a Massachusetts businessman who waged a tough but unsuccessful campaign to unseat Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) last fall; 23 grandchildren; and 33 great-grandchildren. PRESTON VALIEN Education Commissioner
Preston Valien, 81, a sociologist who retired about 15 years ago as deputy commissioner of the U.S. Office of Education, died of pneumonia July 16 at Carriage Hill Nursing Home in Silver Spring.
He had lived in Washington since 1965, when he joined the predecessor of the Department of Education. There, he directed the program analysis branch, graduate programs and the college and university division before being named deputy commissioner for higher education.
Dr. Valien was a native of Texas and a graduate of Prairie View A&M University. He received a master's degree and doctorate, both in sociology, from the University of Wisconsin and also did graduate work in sociology at the University of Pennsylvania.
He was social sciences chairman at Fisk University from the 1940s to 1958, when he was named associate director of the driver research center of the New York state health department. Before moving to Washington, he was cultural attache with the U.S. Information Agency in Lagos, Nigeria, and taught at Columbia University, Brooklyn College and University College in Ibadan, Nigeria.
Dr. Valien published books and articles about problems of the rural South and urban black workers, race relations, sociological theory and accident research. His honors included the Superior Service Award of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and an honorary degree from Rio Grande College.
He was a fellow of the American Sociological Society. He was a member of Plymouth Congregational Church in Washington and Epsilon Boule academic honorary society and an associate member of the Woman's National Democratic Club.
Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Bonita Harrison Valien of Washington; and a sister, Helen Valien Elliott of Beaumont, Tex. WILLIAM WARREN ANDERSON Print Shop Owner
William Warren Anderson, 63, owner for the last 25 years of the Anacostia Print Shop on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, died July 25 at Greater Southeast Community Hospital of complications after surgery for prostate cancer. He was a lifelong Washington resident.
Mr. Anderson was a graduate of Armstrong High School and served in the Air Force during the Korean War. Before going into business for himself, he was a clerk with the Navy Department and a printer at Morton's Print Shop in Washington.
Mr. Anderson was an Elk and a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Washington.
Survivors include his wife, Thelma Anderson of Washington; two children, William Anderson Jr. of New York and Deborah Copeland of Fort Washington; five stepchildren, Air Force Sgt. Suzette Robinson, stationed in Sicily, Joseph and Curtis Robinson, both of Washington, Army Sgt. Nathaniel Robinson of Fort Campbell, Ky., and Darleen Williams of Temple Hills; five sisters; two brothers; and 11 grandchildren. FLOR de LIZA RAMISCAL Secretary
Flor de Liza Ramiscal, 61, a secretary at the International Monetary Fund from 1969 to 1978 and at area law firms until 1994, died of cancer July 20 at a hospital in Norfolk.
She was a resident of the Washington area off and on since 1967 and moved from Springfield to Norfolk in June.
Mrs. Ramiscal was a native of San Jose City, Philippines, and a graduate of Santo Tomas University in that country. She taught high school English in the Philippines in the 1950s. She moved to Washington in 1967.
Mrs. Ramiscal had worked as a clerk in the registrar's office at Georgetown University and had been a part-time agent with Apex Realty in Northern Virginia. She had been a secretary for Arnold and Porter law firm, among others.
She was a member of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Springfield. Her marriages to Orlando Roble, Leroy Spriggs and Donald Waring ended in divorce.
Survivors include five children from her first marriage, Robert Roble of Norfolk, Orlando Roble Jr. of Santa Ana, Calif., Rossana Roble of Centreville, Rebecca Roble of Springfield and Maria Roble of New York; a son from her second marriage, Adgardo Spriggs of Springfield; four brothers; two sisters; and seven grandchildren. CAPTION: GEORGE W. ROMNEY.
