Donald J. Atwood, Ex-Deputy Defense Secretary

Donald J. Atwood, former deputy secretary of defense and retired vice chairman of General Motors Corp., has died after ulcer surgery in a suburban Detroit hospital. He was 69.

A spokeswoman for William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., said Atwood suffered a heart attack as a complication of the surgery Sunday and died Sunday night.

Atwood ended a 30-year career at GM in 1989, when he was called to the Pentagon by President George Bush and Defense Secretary Dick Cheney for his business and financial expertise.

Atwood served as the Defense Department’s second-ranking official during four tumultuous years that included the collapse of Soviet Communism, the Gulf War and the downsizing of the U.S. defense establishment.

“Don served as deputy during a period of dramatic change,” Defense Secretary William J. Perry said Monday, adding that Atwood “recognized that the Defense Department had to change along with the world” after the Cold War.

Born in Haverhill, Mass., in 1924, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was active in pioneering research for inertial guidance technology for missiles and spacecraft.

He joined GM in 1959 as an associate director of its Boston Research and Development Laboratory and directed GM’s involvement with the Apollo space program in the 1960s. He later worked to incorporate many electronic technology advancements into GM’s cars and trucks.

From 1987 until his appointment to the Pentagon in 1989, he served as GM vice chairman.

He is survived by his wife, Curina; a son, Donald; a daughter, Susan, and two granddaughters.