George Wilcken Romney b. 8 Jul 1907 Colonia Dublán, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, México d. 26 Jul 1995 Bloomfield Hills, Oakland, Michigan, United States: Our Family History

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1907 - 1995 (88 years)

Submit Photo / Document Has 4 ancestors and 17 descendants in this family tree.

Name	George Wilcken Romney
Birth	8 Jul 1907	Colonia Dublán, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, México
Christening	1 Sep 1907
Gender	Male
Initiatory (LDS)	12 Oct 1926	SLAKE
FamilySearch ID	KW8M-TY7
Death	26 Jul 1995	Bloomfield Hills, Oakland, Michigan, United States
Burial	31 Jul 1995	Fairview Cemetery, Brighton, Livingston, Michigan, United States
Person ID	I98638	mytree
Last Modified	25 Feb 2024

Father	Gaskell Samuel Romney, b. 22 Sep 1871, St. George, Washington, Utah, United States d. 7 Mar 1955 (Age 83 years)
Mother	Anna Amelia Pratt, b. 6 May 1876, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States d. 4 Feb 1926, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 49 years)
Marriage	20 Feb 1895	Colonia Dublán, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, México
Family ID	F31268	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family Lenore Emily LaFount, b. 9 Nov 1908, Logan, Cache, Utah, United States d. 7 Jul 1998, Bloomfield Hills, Oakland, Michigan, United States (Age 89 years)

Marriage 2 Jul 1931 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States

Children

+	1. Margo Lynn Romney, b. 6 Jun 1935, Washington, District of Columbia, United States d. 20 Dec 2019, Sandy, Salt Lake, Utah, United States (Age 84 years)
	2. Living
	3. Living
+	4. Living

Family ID F31267 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 21 Nov 2024

Event Map

	Birth - 8 Jul 1907 - Colonia Dublán, Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, México
	Initiatory (LDS) - 12 Oct 1926 - SLAKE
	Marriage - 2 Jul 1931 - Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, United States
	Death - 26 Jul 1995 - Bloomfield Hills, Oakland, Michigan, United States
	Burial - 31 Jul 1995 - Fairview Cemetery, Brighton, Livingston, Michigan, United States

= Link to Google Earth

Photos
Romney, George W b1907 - Portrait

Notes

He was an American businessman and Republican Party politician. He was c h airman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962 , th e 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, and the United State s Secr etary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973. He was t he fath er of Governor of Massachusetts, 2012 Republican presidential nom inee an d United States Senator from Utah Mitt Romney, husband of 1970 U. S. Senat e candidate Lenore Romney, and grandfather of current Republica n Nationa l Committee chair Ronna McDaniel.

Romney was born to American parents living in the Mormon colonies in Mex i co; events during the Mexican Revolution forced his family to flee bac k t o the United States when he was a child. The family lived in severa l stat es and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where they struggled duri ng th e Great Depression. Romney worked in a number of jobs, served a s a Mormo n missionary in the United Kingdom, and attended several colleg es in th e U.S. but did not graduate from any of them. In 1939 he moved t o Detroi t and joined the American Automobile Manufacturers Association , where h e served as the chief spokesman for the automobile industry dur ing Worl d War II and headed a cooperative arrangement in which companie s could sh are production improvements. He joined Nash-Kelvinator in 1948 , and becam e the chief executive of its successor, American Motors Corpo ration, in 1 954. There he turned around the struggling firm by focusin g all efforts o n the compact Rambler car. Romney mocked the products o f the "Big Three " automakers as "gas-guzzling dinosaurs" and became on e of the first high -profile, media-savvy business executives. Devoutly r eligious, he preside d over the Detroit Stake of The Church of Jesus Chri st of Latter-day Sain ts.

Having entered politics by participating in a state constitutional conve n tion to rewrite the Michigan Constitution during 1961–1962, Romney wa s el ected Governor of Michigan in 1962. Re-elected by increasingly larg e marg ins in 1964 and 1966, he worked to overhaul the state's financia l and rev enue structure, greatly expanding the size of state governmen t and introd ucing Michigan's first state income tax. Romney was a stron g supporter o f the American Civil Rights Movement. He briefly represente d moderate Rep ublicans against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater d uring the 196 4 U.S. presidential election. He requested the interventio n of federal tr oops during the 1967 Detroit riot.

Initially a front runner for the Republican nomination for President o f t he United States in the 1968 election, he proved an ineffective campa igne r and fell behind Richard Nixon in polls. After a mid-1967 remark th at hi s earlier support for the Vietnam War had been due to a "brainwashi ng" b y U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam, his campaign f altere d even more and he withdrew from the contest in early 1968. Afte r Nixon' s election as president, he appointed Romney as Secretary of Hou sing an d Urban Development. Romney's ambitious plans for housing product ion incr eases for the poor, and for open housing to desegregate suburbs , were mod estly successful but often thwarted by Nixon. Romney left th e administrat ion at the start of Nixon's second term in 1973. Returnin g to private lif e, he advocated volunteerism and public service, and hea ded the Nationa l Center for Voluntary Action and its successor organizat ions from 1973 t hrough 1991. He also served as a regional representativ e of the Twelve wi thin his church.

Romney's grandparents were polygamous Mormons who fled the United Stat e s with their children owing to the federal government's prosecution o f po lygamy. His maternal grandfather was Helaman Pratt (1846–1909), wh o presi ded over the Mormon mission in Mexico City before moving to the M exican s tate of Chihuahua and who was the son of original Mormon apostl e Parley P . Pratt (1807–1857). In the 1920s, Romney's uncle Rey L. Prat t (1878–1931 ) played a major role in the preservation and expansion of t he Mormon pre sence in Mexico and in its introduction to South America . A more distan t kinsman was George Romney (1734–1802), a noted portrai t painter in Brit ain during the last quarter of the 18th century.

Romney's parents, Gaskell Romney (1871–1955) and Anna Amelia Pratt (1876 – 1926), were United States citizens and natives of the Territory of Uta h . They married in 1895 in Mexico and lived in Colonia Dublán in Galean a i n the state of Chihuahua (one of the Mormon colonies in Mexico), wher e Ge orge was born on July 8, 1907. They practiced monogamy (polygamy hav ing b een abolished by the 1890 Manifesto, although it persisted in place s, esp ecially Mexico). George had three older brothers, two younger brot hers, a nd a younger sister. Gaskell Romney was a successful carpenter, h ouse bui lder, and farmer who headed the most prosperous family in the co lony, whi ch was situated in an agricultural valley below the Sierra Madr e Occident al. The family chose U.S. citizenship for their children, incl uding Georg e.

The Mexican Revolution broke out in 1910 and the Mormon colonies were en d angered in 1911–1912 by raids from marauders, including "Red Flaggers " Pa scual Orozco and José Inés Salazar. Young George heard the sound o f dista nt gunfire and saw rebels walking through the village streets. Th e Romne y family fled and returned to the United States in July 1912, lea ving the ir home and almost all of their property behind. Romney later sa id, "We w ere the first displaced persons of the 20th century."

In the United States, Romney grew up in humble circumstances. The fami l y subsisted with other Mormon refugees on government relief in El Paso , T exas, benefiting from a $100,000 fund for refugees that the U.S. Cong res s had set up. After a few months they moved to Los Angeles, Californi a, w here Gaskell Romney worked as a carpenter. In kindergarten, other ch ildre n mocked Romney's national origin by calling him "Mex".

Five males of varying ages stand in a tight group, outdoors. Two sitti n g females huddle with them: a woman in a dress and a 1920s-style bonne t a nd a young girl in a dress. All have somber expressions. All the male s we ar jackets and suit ties with the exception of a teenage youth i n a colla red shirt and loop-collared, pullover sweater with a large bloc k letter s ewn onto the sweater's front. In 1913, the family moved to Oak ley, Idaho , and bought a farm, where they grew and subsisted largely o n Idaho potat oes. The farm was not on good land and failed when potato p rices fell. Th e family moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1916, where Gas kell Romney res umed construction work, but the family remained generall y poor. In 1917 , they moved to Rexburg, Idaho, where Gaskell became a su ccessful home an d commercial builder in a growing area due to high Worl d War I commoditie s prices.

George started working in wheat and sugar beet fields at the age of elev e n and was the valedictorian at his grammar school graduation in 1921 ( b y the sixth grade he had attended six different schools). The Depressi o n of 1920–21 brought a collapse in prices, and local building was aband on ed. His family returned to Salt Lake City in 1921, and while his fathe r r esumed construction work, George became skilled at lath-and-plaster w ork . The family was again prospering when the Great Depression hit in 19 29 a nd ruined them. George watched his parents fail financially in Idah o an d Utah and having to take a dozen years to pay off their debts. Seei ng th eir struggles influenced his life and business career.

In Salt Lake City, Romney worked while attending Roosevelt Junior High S c hool and, beginning in 1922, Latter-day Saints High School. There he pl ay ed halfback on the football team, guard on the basketball team, and ri gh t field on the baseball team, all with more persistence than talent, b u t in an effort to uphold the family tradition of athleticism, he earne d v arsity letters in all three sports. In his senior year, he and junio r Len ore LaFount became high school sweethearts; she was from a more wel l-assi milated Mormon family. Academically, Romney was steady but undisti nguishe d. He graduated from high school in 1925; his yearbook picture ca ption wa s "Serious, high minded, of noble nature – a real fellow."

Partly to stay near Lenore, Romney spent the next year as a junior colle g e student at the co-located Latter-day Saints University, where he wa s el ected student body president. He was also president of the booster c lub a nd played on the basketball team that won the Utah–Idaho Junior Col lege T ournament.

That same year, Ronna Romney, Romney's ex-daughter-in-law (formerly marr i ed to G. Scott Romney), decided to seek the Republican nomination for t h e U.S. Senate from Michigan. While Mitt and G. Scott endorsed Ronna Rom ne y, George Romney had endorsed her opponent and the eventual winner, Sp enc er Abraham, during the previous year when Ronna was considering a ru n bu t had not yet announced. A family spokesperson said that George Romn ey ha d endorsed Abraham before knowing Ronna Romney would run and coul d not g o back on his word,

By January 1995, amid press criticism of the Points of Light Foundatio n e ngaging in ineffective, wasteful spending, Romney expressed concern t ha t the organization had too high a budget. Active to the end, in July 1 995 , four days before his death, Romney proposed a presidential summit t o en courage greater volunteerism and community service, and the night be for e his death he drove to a meeting of another volunteer organization.

On July 26, 1995, Romney died of a heart attack at the age of 88 whil e h e was doing his morning exercising on a treadmill at his home in Bloo mfie ld Hills, Michigan; he was discovered by his wife Lenore but it wa s too l ate to save him. He was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Bright on, Mich igan. In addition to his wife and children, Romney was survive d by 23 gra ndchildren and 33 great-grandchildren.