Philip Caldwell, 93, the first person to lead Ford who wasn’t a member of the founding family of the automobile company, died Wednesday at his home in New Canaan, Conn.
Caldwell, who was CEO from 1979 until retirement in 1985, is credited with leading Ford from deep financial troubles back to profitability. He also fostered development of the Ford Taurus sedan, which became the top-selling car in America for five years and helped to save the company from financial ruin.
He retired in 1985 after 32 years with the company, but remained on the board until May 1990. He replaced Henry Ford II as CEO and was picked shortly after high-profile president Lee Iacocca was fired and later joined rival Chrysler.
Charles “Chuck” Foley, 82, the father of nine who invented “Twister” — the game that became a naughty sensation in living rooms across America in the 1960s and 1970s because of the way it put men and women in compromising positions — has died.
Foley died July 1 at a care facility in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. His son, Mark Foley, said Thursday that his father had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Foley and a collaborator, Neil Rabens, were hired in the mid-1960s by a St. Paul manufacturing firm that wanted to expand into games and toys. They came up with a game to be played on a mat on the floor, using a spinner to direct players to place their hands and feet on different colored circles.
The game became a sensation after Johnny Carson and Eva Gabor played it on “The Tonight Show” in 1966.
Toshi Seeger, 91, folk singer Pete Seeger’s wife of 70 years and a close partner in his social and environmental activism, died Tuesday night at the couple’s home in Beacon in New York’s Hudson Valley.
The cause of death was not immediately known.
Never famous like her 94-year-old husband, friends say Toshi Seeger was an equal who perfectly complemented Pete Seeger’s idealism.
She met her future husband as a teenager in New York City when Pete Seeger performed at a square dance and he stayed after to dance. They were married July 20, 1943.
