John T. Connor; Former Commerce Secretary

John T. Connor, 85, former secretary of commerce under President Lyndon B. Johnson. Connor, a businessman who was head of two Fortune 500 companies during his long career, held the Cabinet post from 1965 to 1967. During his tenure, several of the department’s agencies were spun off into the newly formed Department of Transportation. Connor’s wife, Mary, said her husband left government because he was an idealist and felt that Johnson was treating his Cabinet members like mere aides. Connor also opposed the escalation of the Vietnam War under Johnson and in the 1970s became a leader of the Committee of Business Executives Against the Vietnam War. A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Connor graduated from Syracuse University and Harvard Law School. After practicing law in New York, he moved to Washington, D.C., in 1942 and served as general counsel for the Office of Scientific Research and Development. His duties included setting up a program to study and produce penicillin. During World War II, Connor served as a Marine air combat intelligence officer. He later worked for Merck pharmaceutical company and was named its president and chief executive in 1955. After his stint in the Johnson administration, he became president and then chairman and chief executive of Allied Chemical from 1967 to 1979. He then worked for Shroder’s Ltd. of London until retiring in 1987. On Friday in Boston of cancer.