Portal:Michigan/Selected biography/13

George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995) was an American businessman and a politician. He was chairman of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962. He then served as the 43rd governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969 and then the 3rd United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973. Romney was a candidate for President in 1968, ultimately losing the Republican nomination to Richard Nixon. He is the father of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and the husband of former Michigan Senate candidate Lenore Romney. George W. Romney was a kinsman of George Romney (1734-1802), a noted portrait painter in Britain during the last quarter of the 18th century. Romney was born to American parents in a Mormon colony in Mexico. His family moved back to the United States when he was a child.