Three members of Carter’s cabinet survive him, including a New Jerseyan

Jimmy Carter outlived all but three members of his cabinet, including Princeton resident Michael Blumenthal, who will celebrate his 99th birthday on January 3.

Blumenthal served as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1977 to 1979 and is the oldest living former member of a President’s cabinet.

While earning his Ph.D. in Economics at Princeton University in the 1950s, Blumenthal was a New Jersey state employee; he was a labor arbitrator while Robert Meyner was governor. He later served in the State Department during the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson administrations, and spent ten years as CEO of an aerospace, electronics, and auto parts manufacturing company.   He lives in Princeton and was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention pledged to Barack Obama.

Carter fired Blumenthal in 1979 as part of a purge of five cabinet members to reset his administration during a period of low job approval ratings.  Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano, 93, who was let go along with Blumenthal, and Secretary of Labor F. Ray Marshall, 96, who served from 1977 to 1981, survive Carter.

Another New Jerseyan, Nicholas Brady, 94, is the oldest surviving member of Ronald Reagan’s and George H.W. Bush’s cabinet. He served as the Republican State Committeeman from Somerset County before Gov. Thomas Kean appointed him to the U.S. Senate in 1982. Reagan nominated him as Secretary of the Treasury in September 1988, and he remained for the full four years of Bush’s presidency. Brady is the oldest living former U.S. Senator.

Brady is one of nine former members of the Reagan cabinet still alive, along with: James Baker (94), Secretary of the Treasury (and Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush); Edwin Meese (93), Attorney General; John Block (89), Secretary of Agriculture; Donald Hodel (89), Secretary of Energy and then Secretary of the Interior; Elizabeth Dole (88), Secretary of Transportation (and Secretary of Labor under G.H.W. Bush); John Herrington (81), Secretary of Energy; William Bennett (81), Secretary of Education; and James Burnley (76), Secretary of Transportation).

Three members of President Gerald Ford’s cabinet are still alive: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Carla Anderson Hills (90), Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare F. David Matthews (89), and Secretary of Agriculture John Knebel (88).  Knebel was named two days after Ford lost the 1976 presidential election to Carter as an interim appointee.

Next month, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, 42, will become the youngest former cabinet secretary.