James W Cozad

Mr. Cozad was born Feb. 10, 1927, in Huntington, Ind. He graduated from Huntington Township High School in 1945, then enlisted in the Navy and served in the Pacific toward the end of World War II. He piloted a Higgins boat during the Battle of Okinawa, according to his son, Jeff Cozad. After the war, Mr. Cozad graduated from Indiana University with a degree in accounting. While at Indiana he met his wife, Virginia. Mr. Cozad joined Peat Marwick and Mitchell & Co. in Detroit as a senior accountant and also worked as treasurer with Philip Morris in New York. He and his family moved to north suburban Glenview when in 1969 he joined Standard Oil Co. of Indiana, later called Amoco Corp., as financial vice president. He then became chairman and CEO of Whitman Corp., a consumer product company that became one of the largest bottlers of Pepsi. Mr. Cozad ran the company during a time of transition after its chairman died unexpectedly in 1989. Mr. Cozad worked at Whitman until he retired in 1992. Mr. Cozad served on many boards, including the Lyric's board of directors beginning in 1986. He was the board's president and CEO from 1992 to 1996. Mr. Cozard received an honorary law degree from Indiana University in 1982 and with his wife endowed the James and Virginia Cozad Chair of Finance at Indiana's Kelley School of Business. Mr. Cozad also is survived by his wife; two other sons, Mike and Scott; two daughters, Amy Challgren and Catherine; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.