Michael H. Jordan *59

Michael Jordan, who had successfully turned around major corporations, died May 25, 2010, of neuroendocrine cancer. He was 73.

Jordan graduated from Yale in 1957, and two years later earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Princeton. He then joined the Navy for four years and served on Adm. Hyman Rickover’s staff. Jordan’s next stop was McKinsey & Co. for 10 years, before going to PepsiCo.

In 1993, he was chosen by the struggling Westinghouse Electric Co. to be its CEO. Within a year, Jordan bought CBS and combined the two under the CBS name into a media-centered enterprise. Succeeding at this, Jordan left in 1998 and became a private investor. In 2003, he was chosen to head another foundering corporation, Electronic Data Systems. By 2005 he had turned EDS around, and in 2008 Hewlett-Packard bought it for $14 billion.

Jordan credited his strong scientific education with helping him solve business problems. He appreciatively recalled making calculations at Princeton on a machine designed by the great mathematician and computer pioneer, Professor John von Neumann.

Jordan is survived by his wife, Hilary Cecil-Jordan, whom he married in 2000; two children, whose mother, Kathryn Beacham, was married to Jordan for 38 years; and six grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.