Lasting Memories

Claude Stout Brinegar
1927-March 13, 2009
Palo Alto, California

Claude Stout Brinegar, 82, a former Menlo Park resident who served as the nation's third secretary of transportation, died March 13 at Classic Hyatt Care Center in Palo Alto.

Born Claude Rawles Stout in Rockport, Calif., he took the name of his stepfather, Butler Brinegar, in 1951. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in Japan and Korea in 1945-47. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa with three degrees from Stanford University, a bachelor's degree in economics, a master's in statistics and a doctorate in applied economics from Stanford's Food Research Institute.

After retiring in 1992, he return to the institute to serve as a visiting scholar for four years. He served as secretary of transportation in Richard Nixon's cabinet in 1973-75. He stayed on for six months after Nixon's resignation. Although he admired Gerald Ford, he did not want to be part of an election campaign, family members said.

He spent nearly 40 years in the oil industry, joining Union Oil Co. of California in 1953 and rising to executive vice president and chief financial officer of the renamed Unocal Corp. by the time he retired. He returned to Union Oil in 1975 and in 1980-81, headed Ronald Reagan's transportation transition team. He returned to the Democratic Party in the 1990s.

An avid collector of Mark Twain first editions and related memorabilia, he proved by statistical tests that Twain was not the author of a collection of letters attributed to him. Elmira College awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1997 for his public service and Twain-related work.

His marriage to the former Elva Jackson in 1950 ended in divorce. In 1983 he married Mary Katharine Porter, who died in 1993.

He is survived by his wife, Karen Bartholomew, whom he married in 1995; his children, Claudia Berglund of Huntington Beach, Meredith Cross of Washington, D.C., and Thomas Brinegar of Cody, Wyoming; and four grandchildren.