McCone was born in San Francisco, California, and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1922. A prominent industrialist, McCone also served for more than twenty years as a governmental advisor and official. Most importantly, he was chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (1958 - 1961) and director of the CIA (1961 - 1965). Throughout his career, he served on numerous commissions that made recommendations on issues as diverse as civilian applications of militarytechnology and the Watts riots. (See Violence in the City -- An End or a Beginning?: A Report by the Governor's Commision on the Los Angeles Riots.)
