Ex-Ford “Whiz Kid” Arjay Miller Dies at 101

Arjay Miller, one of the so-called whiz kids hired by Henry Ford II after World War II to revive Ford Motor Co., has died at age 101.

Miller and nine other Harvard graduates learned the then-new field of management science as members of the U.S. Air Force’s Statistical Control unit, which had been set up to organize logistics during the war. They presented themselves as a corporate turnaround team before that phrase had been invented.

At Ford, the men quickly imposed financial and management structure on a stunningly disorganized company, reversing 15 consecutive years of losses. Miller eventually became head of finance and then president and later vice chairman at Ford. During his tenure, the company surged to record earnings.

After the riots in Detroit in 1967, Miller founded an economic development group to foster black-owned and operated businesses. President Lyndon Johnson named him to head the Urban Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank created in 1968 to pursue social and economic policy research.

Miller sat on Ford’s board until 1986. He also served as dean of the Stanford University’s business school between 1969 and 1979.