Michael Walsh, Engineer of Tenneco Revival, Dies
Tenneco Chairman Michael H. Walsh, a hard-charging executive who engineered turnarounds at two major corporations and served as U.S. attorney in San Diego, died Friday at age 51 after a lengthy battle with brain cancer.
Walsh relinquished control of the Houston-based conglomerate and the title of chief executive in February to concentrate on his treatment and recovery from the tumor, which was diagnosed in January, 1993. He retained the title of chairman while on medical leave.
“Tenneco and Mike Walsh’s many friends mourn the loss of our remarkable leader and friend,” said Dana Mead, who succeeded Walsh as Tenneco’s chief executive. “Mike’s legacy is our shared inspiration to fight on and never settle for second best.”
Walsh, a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School, stepped down as chief executive of Tenneco only a few months after he announced that tests had indicated chemotherapy and radiation treatments had managed to stop the growth of the tumor, which had begun to break up.
But doctors said Friday that the cancer had recurred, and Walsh died of complications from it at the Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston.
Tenneco, which will donate $1 million to the University of Texas in Walsh’s honor, is expected to name a new chairman next week after its annual meeting.
Whether as a high school football star, a San Diego trial lawyer or a corporate chairman, Walsh was known for a competitive and ambitious nature that left him restless for the next challenge.
“He was a man of tremendous energy and ability,” said John Lightner, a senior partner in the San Diego law firm of Lightner Castro Schaefer & Hunter, where Walsh worked as a trial lawyer and partner in the mid-1970s.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter named Walsh the U.S. attorney for Southern California in San Diego. During his brief tenure, he mounted a successful case that led to the prosecution of a San Diego City Council member for customs fraud. But his office failed to convict two U.S. Border Patrol agents charged with brutality against illegal immigrants.
Walsh entered the corporate world in 1980 when he joined Cummins Engine Co. as a vice president in its international manufacturing operations. Four years later, he was executive vice president of Cummins and a member of its board.
In 1986, Walsh became chairman and chief executive of Union Pacific Railroad Co. He was credited with a restructuring that boosted productivity and quality at the nation’s third-largest railroad.
Walsh faced an even bigger restructuring in the fall of 1991 when he became president of Tenneco, which owns a variety of companies, from natural gas operations to auto parts. Within a relatively short and tumultuous period, Walsh halved the dividend, sold off divisions and laid off workers. The painful changes resulted in a profit of $426 million in 1993, following combined losses of more than $2 billion in 1991 and 1992.
Walsh is survived by his wife, Joan, of Houston and three college-age children.
Bloomberg Business News contributed to this report.
