James Schlesinger, Pentagon Chief to Nixon, Ford, Dies at 85

James R. Schlesinger, who served as U.S. secretary of defense under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford before becoming the nation’s first energy chief in Jimmy Carter’s administration, has died. He was 85.

He died today at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, his daughter, Ann Schlesinger, said in a telephone interview. The cause was complications from pneumonia.