Bush Nominee’s Death Ruled a Suicide

The death of Colin McMillan, an oilman awaiting Senate confirmation as Navy secretary, was ruled a suicide by gunshot Friday.

McMillan, 67, was found dead Thursday at his ranch in southern New Mexico, near the White Sands Missile Range.

“The cause is a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The manner is suicide,” said Tim Stepetic, spokesman for the state medical investigator.

In Alamogordo, District Atty. Scot Key would not say whether McMillan left a suicide note. Key said a handgun was found with the body.

McMillan “had a recurrence of cancer,” but “everybody thought he was recovered, recuperating quite well,” Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) said Friday on the Senate floor.

President Bush had nominated McMillan in May for the Navy post, which had been vacant since Gordon England left in January to become deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

The president said he and his wife were “saddened by the death of our good friend.”

McMillan served in the Marine Corps from 1957 to 1972 and was assistant Defense secretary in the early 1990s.

McMillan ran Permian Exploration Corp. in Roswell.

He was a member of the New Mexico House from 1971 to 1982 and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1994.