Micron Technology Inc. has named its No. 2 executive, D. Mark Durcan, as interim chief executive after Friday's death of Chairman and CEO Steve Appleton in a Boise plane crash.

Durcan, 50, Micron's president and chief operating officer, announced one week ago that he would retire from Micron in August after 28 years with the Boise memory-chip manufacturer. Mark W. Adams, Micron's vice president of worldwide sales, was named to succeed Durcan.

It wasn't immediately known if Durcan might be a candidate for the CEO job or the chairmanship, or whether he would change his mind about retirement. Micron said its board would meet over the weekend.

Micron watchers say Durcan needs to stay on, as much as a couple of years, to help the company through the transition.

Durcan is regarded as a strong engineer who complimented Appleton's strengths as a visionary. He is widely regarded as a primary influence in the company's move to diversify its product base in recent years, branching out from dynamic random-access memory into flash memory and other products. NAND flash memory last year overtook DRAM as Micron's principal product.

"Steve was a true friend who will be dearly missed by all of us," Durcan said Friday.

Durcan joined Micron in June 1984. He was named chief operating officer in February 2006 and president in June 2007. He has been an officer since 1996.

Durcan holds bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Rice University.