SAN JOSE, Calif. — Norman Yoshio Mineta, who survived internment during World War II, rose to be San Jose’s mayor and congressman and served as U.S. secretary of transportation during 9/11, died Tuesday at the age of 90 at his home in Maryland.
Mineta died of heart failure, John Flaherty, his former chief of staff, told The Washington Post.
He built a nationwide reputation over a long political career, as a Democrat who served in the Cabinet of a Republican president and as the man who was instrumental in the creation of the Transportation Security Agency. But his story began in San Jose, which named Norman Y. Mineta International Airport in his honor in 2001.
