Rumsfeld: Long Public and Private Career

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ponders a question during a Pentagon news conference in this July 22, 2002 file photo. Rumsfeld stepped down as defense secretary on Wednesday Nov. 8, 2006, one day after midterm elections in which opposition to the war in Iraq contributed to heavy Republican losses. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File) (Rick Bowmer - AP)

-- The career of Donald Rumsfeld:

_July 9, 1932: Donald Henry Rumsfeld born in Evanston, Ill.

_1954: Earns A.B. from Princeton University; joins U.S. Navy as aviator and flight instructor.

_1957: Moves to Washington as administrative assistant to a congressman.

_1962: Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinois; re-elected three times.

_1969-72: Joins Cabinet as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, then Counselor to President Nixon.

_1973-74: Serves as U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels, Belgium.

_August 1974: Becomes chairman of the transition to the presidency of Gerald R. Ford, later named White House chief of staff.

_Nov. 1975-January 1977: Serves as 13th defense secretary, the youngest in history.

_1977-85: Runs Skokie, Ill.-based G.D. Searle pharmaceutical company as president, chief executive officer and later chairman.

_1983-84: Serves as special ambassador to the Middle East for President Reagan.

_1985-2001: Pursues a career in private business, including as chairman and CEO of General Instrument Corporation, a broadband company, then as chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc., which developed Tamiflu, used against bird flu.