chairman and chief executive of Union Carbide.
The son of an immigrant Swedish carpenter, Warren Martin Anderson was born in
Brooklyn on November 29, 1921 and named after the incumbent President Warren
Harding. He won academic and sports scholarships to Colgate University in New
York state to study chemistry, and after graduating in 1942, he joined the U.S.
navy to train as a fighter pilot (though he never saw combat) and represent the
service on the football field. Joining Union Carbide after the war, he started
as a salesman, acquired a second degree in law, and worked his way steadily
upwards through the management ranks, running factory operations at home and
abroad.
Tall and silver-haired, Anderson was an archetype of American corporate success
when he was promoted in 1982 from president and chief operating officer of Union
Carbide to chairman and chief executive. At its zenith under his command, the
multinational maker of plastics, chemicals and industrial gases had 700 plants
in 38 countries, employing more than 100,000 people. Though his primary concern
was to improve flagging profits, there was no doubt also, according to one
historian, that he wanted “to turn Union Carbide into a firm in which respect
for moral values would carry as much weight as the rise of its shares on the
stock market.”
The leakage of methyl isocyanate and other gases on the night of December 2 1984
from the pesticide plant at Bhopal, capital of the Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, caused a lethal cloud to spread through nearby shanty towns populated
by the city’s poorest. The death toll rose from a first confirmed figure of
3,787 to later estimates from Indian activists ranging as high as 25-30,000. As
soon as news of the disaster reached Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury,
Connecticut, Anderson opted to fly to Bhopal, despite the obvious risks. There,
before he could make any decisions at the factory, he and several colleagues
were arrested for “culpable homicide” — but swiftly released again, on bail of
25,000 rupees (about $2,000), after an intervention by the Indian foreign
ministry in fear of a clash with the US government. Shortly before he boarded a
private jet to return to America, Anderson was asked whether he would return to
face charges; he was reported to have replied: “I will come back to India
whenever the law requires it”, but he never did so.
In 1985 he told an interviewer of his feelings of loss and helplessness, and the
next year he retired, to disappear from public view. Anderson remained almost
invisible at secluded homes in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Hamptons and Vero
Beach, Florida, where he was said to enjoy fishing, gardening, and baking
Swedish bread. His death at Vero Beach on September 29 was not announced by his
family.
He is survived by his wife Lillian, née Anderson; they had no children.
(The Telegraph, London, England, November 3, 2014)
The son of an immigrant Swedish carpenter, Warren Martin Anderson was born in
Brooklyn on November 29, 1921 and named after the incumbent President Warren
Harding. He won academic and sports scholarships to Colgate University in New
York state to study chemistry, and after graduating in 1942, he joined the U.S.
navy to train as a fighter pilot (though he never saw combat) and represent the
service on the football field. Joining Union Carbide after the war, he started
as a salesman, acquired a second degree in law, and worked his way steadily
upwards through the management ranks, running factory operations at home and
abroad.
Tall and silver-haired, Anderson was an archetype of American corporate success
when he was promoted in 1982 from president and chief operating officer of Union
Carbide to chairman and chief executive. At its zenith under his command, the
multinational maker of plastics, chemicals and industrial gases had 700 plants
in 38 countries, employing more than 100,000 people. Though his primary concern
was to improve flagging profits, there was no doubt also, according to one
historian, that he wanted “to turn Union Carbide into a firm in which respect
for moral values would carry as much weight as the rise of its shares on the
stock market.”
The leakage of methyl isocyanate and other gases on the night of December 2 1984
from the pesticide plant at Bhopal, capital of the Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, caused a lethal cloud to spread through nearby shanty towns populated
by the city’s poorest. The death toll rose from a first confirmed figure of
3,787 to later estimates from Indian activists ranging as high as 25-30,000. As
soon as news of the disaster reached Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury,
Connecticut, Anderson opted to fly to Bhopal, despite the obvious risks. There,
before he could make any decisions at the factory, he and several colleagues
were arrested for “culpable homicide” — but swiftly released again, on bail of
25,000 rupees (about $2,000), after an intervention by the Indian foreign
ministry in fear of a clash with the US government. Shortly before he boarded a
private jet to return to America, Anderson was asked whether he would return to
face charges; he was reported to have replied: “I will come back to India
whenever the law requires it”, but he never did so.
In 1985 he told an interviewer of his feelings of loss and helplessness, and the
next year he retired, to disappear from public view. Anderson remained almost
invisible at secluded homes in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Hamptons and Vero
Beach, Florida, where he was said to enjoy fishing, gardening, and baking
Swedish bread. His death at Vero Beach on September 29 was not announced by his
family.
He is survived by his wife Lillian, née Anderson; they had no children.
(The Telegraph, London, England, November 3, 2014)
chairman and chief executive of Union Carbide.
The son of an immigrant Swedish carpenter, Warren Martin Anderson was born in
Brooklyn on November 29, 1921 and named after the incumbent President Warren
Harding. He won academic and sports scholarships to Colgate University in New
York state to study chemistry, and after graduating in 1942, he joined the U.S.
navy to train as a fighter pilot (though he never saw combat) and represent the
service on the football field. Joining Union Carbide after the war, he started
as a salesman, acquired a second degree in law, and worked his way steadily
upwards through the management ranks, running factory operations at home and
abroad.
Tall and silver-haired, Anderson was an archetype of American corporate success
when he was promoted in 1982 from president and chief operating officer of Union
Carbide to chairman and chief executive. At its zenith under his command, the
multinational maker of plastics, chemicals and industrial gases had 700 plants
in 38 countries, employing more than 100,000 people. Though his primary concern
was to improve flagging profits, there was no doubt also, according to one
historian, that he wanted “to turn Union Carbide into a firm in which respect
for moral values would carry as much weight as the rise of its shares on the
stock market.”
The leakage of methyl isocyanate and other gases on the night of December 2 1984
from the pesticide plant at Bhopal, capital of the Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, caused a lethal cloud to spread through nearby shanty towns populated
by the city’s poorest. The death toll rose from a first confirmed figure of
3,787 to later estimates from Indian activists ranging as high as 25-30,000. As
soon as news of the disaster reached Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury,
Connecticut, Anderson opted to fly to Bhopal, despite the obvious risks. There,
before he could make any decisions at the factory, he and several colleagues
were arrested for “culpable homicide” — but swiftly released again, on bail of
25,000 rupees (about $2,000), after an intervention by the Indian foreign
ministry in fear of a clash with the US government. Shortly before he boarded a
private jet to return to America, Anderson was asked whether he would return to
face charges; he was reported to have replied: “I will come back to India
whenever the law requires it”, but he never did so.
In 1985 he told an interviewer of his feelings of loss and helplessness, and the
next year he retired, to disappear from public view. Anderson remained almost
invisible at secluded homes in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Hamptons and Vero
Beach, Florida, where he was said to enjoy fishing, gardening, and baking
Swedish bread. His death at Vero Beach on September 29 was not announced by his
family.
He is survived by his wife Lillian, née Anderson; they had no children.
(The Telegraph, London, England, November 3, 2014)
The son of an immigrant Swedish carpenter, Warren Martin Anderson was born in
Brooklyn on November 29, 1921 and named after the incumbent President Warren
Harding. He won academic and sports scholarships to Colgate University in New
York state to study chemistry, and after graduating in 1942, he joined the U.S.
navy to train as a fighter pilot (though he never saw combat) and represent the
service on the football field. Joining Union Carbide after the war, he started
as a salesman, acquired a second degree in law, and worked his way steadily
upwards through the management ranks, running factory operations at home and
abroad.
Tall and silver-haired, Anderson was an archetype of American corporate success
when he was promoted in 1982 from president and chief operating officer of Union
Carbide to chairman and chief executive. At its zenith under his command, the
multinational maker of plastics, chemicals and industrial gases had 700 plants
in 38 countries, employing more than 100,000 people. Though his primary concern
was to improve flagging profits, there was no doubt also, according to one
historian, that he wanted “to turn Union Carbide into a firm in which respect
for moral values would carry as much weight as the rise of its shares on the
stock market.”
The leakage of methyl isocyanate and other gases on the night of December 2 1984
from the pesticide plant at Bhopal, capital of the Indian state of Madhya
Pradesh, caused a lethal cloud to spread through nearby shanty towns populated
by the city’s poorest. The death toll rose from a first confirmed figure of
3,787 to later estimates from Indian activists ranging as high as 25-30,000. As
soon as news of the disaster reached Union Carbide headquarters in Danbury,
Connecticut, Anderson opted to fly to Bhopal, despite the obvious risks. There,
before he could make any decisions at the factory, he and several colleagues
were arrested for “culpable homicide” — but swiftly released again, on bail of
25,000 rupees (about $2,000), after an intervention by the Indian foreign
ministry in fear of a clash with the US government. Shortly before he boarded a
private jet to return to America, Anderson was asked whether he would return to
face charges; he was reported to have replied: “I will come back to India
whenever the law requires it”, but he never did so.
In 1985 he told an interviewer of his feelings of loss and helplessness, and the
next year he retired, to disappear from public view. Anderson remained almost
invisible at secluded homes in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Hamptons and Vero
Beach, Florida, where he was said to enjoy fishing, gardening, and baking
Swedish bread. His death at Vero Beach on September 29 was not announced by his
family.
He is survived by his wife Lillian, née Anderson; they had no children.
(The Telegraph, London, England, November 3, 2014)
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