Robert Mosbacher spearheaded the North American Free Trade Agreement as President George H.W. Bush’s first Commerce Secretary.
Former Secretary of Commerce Robert Mosbacher died on Sunday. He was 83.
After growing up and attending college in the Northeast, he joined his father in the energy business in Texas, later diversifying his family’s fortune in ranching, real estate and banking.
While in Texas, he met the elder President Bush and helped finance his successful Congressional bid in 1966.
In 1976, he rose to become Finance Chair for Gerald Ford’s campaign and was considered a Vice Presidential candidate for Ronald Reagan in 1980. He would eventually reach the post of Commerce Secretary for President Bush in 1989 spearheading the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
He most recently served as the General Chairman of Sen. John McCain’s run for the Oval Office in 2008.
Mosbacher was also an avid yatchsman, winning gold medals in world championship competitions throughout the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. In 1959, he landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated with his brother Bus, who served as Chief of Protocol for the State Department during the Nixon Administration.
Our thoughts and prayers are with wife Michele and his family.
Robert Mosbacher (left) and his brother Bus (right), Chief of Protocol for the State Department during the Nixon Administration, landed on the cover of Sport Illustrated as the Kings of Class Boat Sailors.