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 July 4, 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, 307 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
editRank |
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, 307 days | 37,197 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, 289 days | 35,353 days |
7 | William Perry | October 11, 1927 | Living | 96 years, 267 days | 35,331 days |
8 | James R. Schlesinger | February 15, 1929 | Living | 95 years, 140 days | 34,838 days |
9 | Frank Carlucci | October 18, 1930 | Living | 93 years, 260 days | 34,228 days |
10 | Donald Rumsfeld | July 9, 1932 | Living | 91 years, 361 days | 33,598 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 | 86 years, 6 days | 31,418 days |
16 | William Cohen | August 28, 1940 | Living | 83 years, 311 days | 30,626 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, 156 days | 30,471 days |
19 | Robert Gates | September 25, 1943 | Living | 80 years, 283 days | 29,503 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 |