Steven G Rothmeier

No-nonsense executive who remade Northwest Airlines in the 1980s only to lose control of the company to a debt-fueled buyout. Rothmeier, 67, had suffered from Lewy body disease, a type of progressive dementia, and Parkinson’s disease, which he’d struggled with for several years, said his brother Michael. Jay Rothmeier, a brother and business partner, confirmed the death. Rothmeier joined Northwest in 1973 after a stint at General Mills. He was a decorated infantry officer in Vietnam and earned an MBA from the University of Chicago. In 1985, at age 38, Rothmeier was named Northwest’s CEO. The oldest of three sons, Rothmeier came home from the University of Notre Dame to run and sell the family propane business in Faribault after his father was killed in a car crash. Rothmeier later returned to graduate from Notre Dame. After leaving NWA, Rothmeier started a St. Paul investment firm, Great Northern Capital. Chairman and CEO -- Great Northern Capital (private investment management, consulting and merchant banking firm) since March 1993. * Director of Precision Castparts Inc. and Arvin Meritor, Inc.