Warren M Anderson

He won football and academic scholarships to Colgate, where he majored in chemistry. After graduating in 1942, he enlisted in the Navy and trained to be a fighter pilot, but never saw combat. He played football for a Navy team that had the legendary Bear Bryant as coach. After his discharge, he made the rounds of chemical companies and took the first job offered him — by Union Carbide. He started as a salesman and later oversaw operations in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. He worked in the company’s chemicals, plastics, gas, metals and carbon businesses. While working for Union Carbide, he earned a law degree from Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve) in 1956. In 1986, at age 65, he retired from Union Carbide. The Bhopal horror began around midnight on Dec. 2-3, 1984, when a chemical reaction in a plant that made insecticides caused a leak of toxic gases that swept through the surrounding community. The government of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh confirmed 3,787 deaths as a result. Unofficial estimates exceeded 10,000. More than a half-million people were injured, with many dying from illnesses including lung cancer, kidney failure and liver disease. In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million to the Indian government to settle litigation stemming from the disaster. But the Indian public, cheered on by politicians and the news media, never stopped urging the prosecution of Mr. Anderson, and arrest warrants were periodically issued. With the support of the United States government, he escaped extradition. And he eluded subpoenas in civil cases by living quietly and migrating between his homes in Vero Beach; Greenwich, Conn.; and Bridgehampton, N.Y. After he became chairman and chief executive in 1982, he improved productivity and sales, and acquired several companies, including STP Oil. Ecologists said Union Carbide began shaking off the reputation as a polluter that had long dogged it. Mr. Anderson ruled over an empire with 700 plants in more than three dozen countries. Then came Bhopal.