The 68-year-old died of a heart attack Monday, Douglas Elmendorf, dean of Harvard University’s Kennedy School, said Tuesday.
Carter taught at the facility. “The United States and the world know Ash Carter for his lifelong commitment to serving this country, defending this country’s best values, and building a safer world for all people,” Elmendorf said.
Carter headed the Pentagon from 2015 to 2017 under then-US President Barack Obama. Under him, the United States also opened its combat troops to women. “We cannot afford to miss out on 50 percent of the country’s opportunities and talents,” he said at the time.
Carter served as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013. He gained significant experience as Secretary of State at the Pentagon in arms sourcing, logistics and new technologies.
Born in 1954 in the American metropolis of Philadelphia, Carter had already held a leadership position in the Department of Defense in the 1990s and eventually climbed the career ladder in political Washington. He previously studied physics at the elite universities of Yale, Oxford and Harvard, among others, and later taught at several universities.
(SDA)