Casper Willard Weinberger (born 1917) served in the administrations of three U.S. presidents, as director of the Office of Management and Budget, as secretary of health, education and welfare, and as secretary of defense. He was noted for His budget-cutting ability until, as secretary of defense, he pressed for huge annual increases in military spending.

Casper W. Weinberger was born in San Francisco on August 18, 1917. He was the son of Herman Weinberger, an attorney, and Cerise Carpenter Hampson. After attending public schools in San Francisco, Caspar won a scholarship to Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree with honors in 1938 and a law degree in 1941. In his senior year as an undergraduate, he was editor of the Crimson, the Harvard newspaper, and wrote conservative editorials that angered his liberal colleagues.

Weinberger enlisted in the army in 1941. He met his future wife Jane, a nurse, aboard...