A non-career appointee, he served as the American ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Austria until his death on March 30, 1982.
[1] A longtime friend of Ronald Reagan, Cummings was considered a member of his Kitchen Cabinet.
Cummings had served in Reagan's governor administration as commissioner, California Commission on Judicial Qualification, California Hospital Commissioner and was a member of the Commission on Health Services Industry of the Cost of Living Council.
He was a resident of Beverly Hills, California, at the time of his death from cancer[3] at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Prior to that, he opened the first Food Giant supermarket, in 1944, in Long Beach and then went on to build and develop a string of stores called Builders Emporiums.