Robert W. Galvin, the former chief executive and chairman of Motorola Inc. during the company’s transformation into a leading electronics company, died of natural causes on October 11, 2011, in Chicago. He was 89.

Galvin, whose father founded the company in 1928, began working at Motorola in 1944. He succeeded his father in 1959, when the company’s annual sales totaled $290 million. By the time Galvin retired as chairman in 1990, Motorola was an international company with $10.8 billion in annual sales.

During his career, Galvin administered Motorola’s breakout into the cellular industry. He oversaw the 1973 conception of the first commercial cellphone and, in the early 1980s, the first cellphone network. In 1987, Galvin expanded the company to China with a $100 million investment. He also helped create the Six Sigma quality system at the company.

In addition to his work with Motorola, Galvin published books on the company’s business philosophy and the influence of Scottish Enlightenment on the United States’s founders. He founded an investment firm with his sons and created two policy institutes focused on energy and transportation issues.

Born in 1922 in Marshfield, Wisconsin, Galvin attended high school in Evanston, Illinois, and the University of Notre Dame.

He is survived by his wife, Mary Barnes Galvin; four children; 13 grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

His wake occurred on Oct. 17, 2011, in Skokie, Illinois., followed by a funeral mass the following day in Winnetka, Illinois.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts be sent to the Robert W. Galvin Center of Electricity Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology, 10 W. 35th St., Suite 1700, Chicago, Illionois 60616, attention: Betsy Hughes.