User:Canuckian89/United States Secretaries of Defense
This is a list of United States Secretaries of Defense in order of longevity. There are currently twenty-two Secretaries on the list and ten living Secretaries. The list is in descending order and is correct as of June 3, 2024. The oldest Secretary is Robert McNamara (1916 - 2009), who died at the age of 93 years, 27 days. The oldest living Secretary is Melvin R. Laird. He is currently 101 years, 276 days old and has held the title of oldest living Secretary since July 6, 2009.
To account for the different number of leap days within the life of each Secretary, two measures of longevity are given. The first is the number of whole years the Secretary lived, and the number of days past their last birthday. The second lists the total number of days lived by the Secretary.
List[edit]
Rank |
Secretary |
Date of Birth |
Date of Death |
Longevity (Years, Days) |
Longevity (Days) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Robert McNamara | June 9, 1916 | July 6, 2009 | 93 years, 27 days | 33,995 days |
2 | Clark Clifford | December 25, 1906 | October 10, 1998 | 91 years, 289 days | 33,527 days |
3 | Robert A. Lovett | September 14, 1895 | May 7, 1986 | 90 years, 235 days | 33,107 days |
4 | Melvin R. Laird | September 1, 1922 | Living | 101 years, 276 days | 37,166 days |
5 | Caspar Weinberger | August 18, 1917 | March 28, 2006 | 88 years, 222 days | 32,364 days |
6 | Harold Brown | September 19, 1927 | Living | 96 years, 258 days | 35,322 days |
7 | William Perry | October 11, 1927 | Living | 96 years, 236 days | 35,300 days |
8 | James R. Schlesinger | February 15, 1929 | Living | 95 years, 109 days | 34,807 days |
9 | Frank Carlucci | October 18, 1930 | Living | 93 years, 229 days | 34,197 days |
10 | Donald Rumsfeld | July 9, 1932 | Living | 91 years, 330 days | 33,567 days |
11 | Elliot Richardson | July 20, 1920 | December 31, 1999 | 79 years, 164 days | 29,018 days |
12 | George Marshall | December 31, 1880 | October 16, 1959 | 78 years, 289 days | 28,777 days |
13 | Thomas S. Gates | April 10, 1906 | March 25, 1983 | 76 years, 349 days | 28,108 days |
14 | Louis A. Johnson | January 10, 1891 | April 24, 1966 | 75 years, 104 days | 27,497 days |
15 | Leon Panetta | June 28, 1938 | Living | 85 years, 341 days | 31,387 days |
16 | William Cohen | August 28, 1940 | Living | 83 years, 280 days | 30,595 days |
17 | Charles E. Wilson | July 18, 1890 | September 26, 1961 | 71 years, 70 days | 26,002 days |
18 | Richard B. Cheney | January 30, 1941 | Living | 83 years, 125 days | 30,440 days |
19 | Robert Gates | September 25, 1943 | Living | 80 years, 252 days | 29,472 days |
20 | Neil H. McElroy | October 30, 1904 | November 30, 1972 | 68 years, 31 days | 24,868 days |
21 | James Forrestal | February 15, 1892 | May 22, 1949 | 57 years, 96 days | 20,915 days |
22 | Les Aspin | July 21, 1938 | May 21, 1995 | 56 years, 304 days | 20,758 days |
Secretaries of Defense | 22 |
---|---|
Living | 10 |
Deceased | 12 |