Photo

life:

In the 1950s and ’60s, LIFE magazine spent a lot of time with the parents and the kids — and, occasionally, the grandkids — of a well-known American family, the Romneys of Michigan. George W. Romney (1907 – 1995), was for eight years the president of American Motors Corporation and, from 1963 to 1969, served as the Republican governor of Michigan.

These photos, ultimately, offer one, small window through which to view the world in which Mitt Romney was raised.  His father (“lean, hard George Romney,” as LIFE put characterized the AMC chairman and president in 1958) is here, as are his mom and his siblings. Here, photos of what it was like — at least when reporters and photographers were around — growing up Romney.

Pictured: George Romney with his son, Mitt, 1958.